Harry Potter and the Jedi Wizard - Part 2: The Chamber of Secrets
by The Black Widow1
Summary: The Continuing story of Harry and his friends as they start their second year at Hogwarts, who is Dobby? Why is he trying to hurt Harry and who opened the Chamber of Secrets? How will Andrew and Mel get involved in this story ... well, I'm hardly about to tell you here am I?
1. Sleepless in the Temple

**Disclaimer: Once again, I'm uploading the whole story at once so I'm just using the one disclaimer. I own nothing, but I do have Jammie Dodgers … for now.**

 **So here's a reuploading of part 2 of the series, please enjoy the read.**

Chapter 1 – Sleepless in the Temple

In a room that he'd just finished fixing; a young Jedi sat, cross legged, meditating. As far as he could tell, he'd been there for nearly a day, but he knew outside, only an hour had passed.

He focused on his breathing, keeping his mind in total balance, finding peace. His face looked perfectly calm, but suddenly he closed eyes became scrunched.

He saw himself, and his best friend, Harry Potter, in a dark but open space. There were statues flanking the stone walkway which they stood on, depicting very large snakes, the funny thing was that he saw this from a third person's view, so either he was having some sort of outer body experience, or there was someone else in the premonition he was having.

They were running towards something, away from where he watched, his perception was bouncing and shaking, almost like someone running with a camera. He kept the same distance with the others, until the statue of a balding head with a massively long beard came into view.

The two knelt down by the unconscious body of a small, red-headed girl. There was a voice behind them and then the vision become a blur of noise and colour, it was too much information for the boy and his concentration broke, shattering the vision as the sound of swinging lightsabers filled his ears.

His breathing was now erratic, he knew what he saw wasn't real, at least not yet, it was a vision of a possible future. "( _Who was following me and Harry? Ron maybe? And what happened after we found Ron's Sister?_ )" he thought to himself.

"Padawan Payne, session ended," a computerised voice announced as the doors opened with a slight hissing sound.

Andrew blinked a few times, letting his eyes adjust to the sudden light, and then he stood up and left the hyper meditation room. He looked at his watch, not completely sure why since he knew the stupid thing would be wrong now.

"How was it Andrew?" his Master asked, walking up to him.

"Relaxing Master, but you know I'm not sleeping any time soon," Andrew stretched letting his numb joints click back where they belonged "What time is it?"

"Getting close to eleven pm," Jarod answered, before adding, "on July the thirtieth if it helps"

Andrew chuckled a little drily. "Thank you Master, if you'll excuse me, I need to write a letter to Harry, it's his birthday tomorrow."

"Of course, run along," Jarod smiled fondly and then yawned, deciding that it was time for him to go to bed and knowing that his apprentice would somehow manage to 'entertain' himself through the night.

Andrew dashed up to his room and slipped into his bedroom, he grabbed a piece of parchment and sat at his desk to write a letter.

An hour later he read over it.

 _Dear Harry,_

 _First of all HAPPY BIRTHDAY!_

 _How've you been? I've not heard from you since we left King's Cross. As you can imagine life in the order's just one huge drama. You might have heard in the news that the Bank of England was the victim of armed robery._

 _Well, me and Mel got involved, thankfully no casualties, except one of the robbers who got shot by his boss, execution style. Mel got a little distracted after we were done 'working' and got hit by a speeding taxi. She's fine, don't worry. She needed surgery and lost a lot of blood, and there's been a shortage lately, so the healers here ran out. Luckily, Mel and I share the same blood type so while Masters Cooper and Bailo lined up donors, I got hooked up to Mel's arm._

 _Long story short, she's become a witch and I'm not sure if that's good or bad, anyway Dumbledore's been tutoring her so that as soon as she's been sorted she'll be in our year. Personally I'm convinced that she'll be in either Gryffindor or Ravenclaw._

 _Let me think, what else has been happening around here … we've got a bunch of aliens staying here, at least we_ _think_ _they're aliens... anyway they're AWESOME musicians, one says he's a vampire and his name is Kain, his 'son' is a demon called Raziel, one comes from a planet called Veldin (which I've never heard of) and calls himself Ratchet and the last one calls himself Jak, but thinks his home's been invaded._

 _That was before we calmed them all down, they went nuts when they showed up from literally nowhere, don't worry nobody was killed, but Kain left a bite mark in Master McKnight's neck and I got a nasty bruise from Ratchet's wrench._

 _There's one more new guy, he turned up with the others, AND HE IS LITERALLY A RACCOON, he calls himself Sly Cooper and he keeps trying to steal my lightsaber, he's a master of stealth and we're considering hiring him as a teacher because he has mad skills._

 _Ron and Hermione have been writing to me too, telling me that you're not replying to any of their letters, you'd best do so soon or I swear that Ron'll do something drastic, and I'd be backing him up dude._

 _Master Cooper told me that he'd issued you a Holo-com and sent it by courier, it was recorded delivery and everything, far as I know, you've gotten the communicator, so how come you haven't called. You're my friend and I'm worried about your silence._

 _Hope to hear from you soon,_

 _Andrew_

After writing that, Andrew turned to the unwrapped present and quickly wrapped it with the Force, just then there was a knock on his door.

"Just a second," he called, trying to hide all the wizard related stuff, but Mel just walked in and Andrew dumped it all on the bed with a sigh, "don't scare me like that maybe?" Andrew said with exasperation as his owl Snowfire soared through the window.

He landed on Mel's shoulder and she stroked his feathers as he nipped at her finger lightly "Hey boy,"

Andrew held up Harry's letter and present "you up for a delivery Snowfire?" he hooted and held his leg out to let Andrew tie them on, he stroked the owl's back when he was done "Say 'hi' to Hedwig for me," Snowfire nodded and took off out the window, into the night.

"Anyway I don't know what you're complaining about," Mel said a little scathingly.

"Only that I had a few books from last year out and we're not supposed to let anyone below Knight rank know about the wizarding world," Andrew replied.

She sighed. "You know that that's what your cupboard is for right? Keeping things out of sight," she then yawned and Andrew looked at his clock, it was nearly midnight.

"Bedtime I think Mel," he thought aloud as she hugged him.

"What about you?" she asked sleepily.

"Well I've got a few more projects to work on, they'll keep me busy for a few hours," Andrew replied absent-mindedly.

"Nothing else?" she asked, he shrugged a little.

"Well our um... guests might be up to some band practise tonight?" he suggested, referring to the band they had sort of created, they didn't even have a name yet. As he shrugged again, she giggled.

"Okay, goodnight Andrew," she said as she slowly drifted out his door.

He flicked his hand and the door closed, he sighed and turned to his slightly cluttered desk.

" _(So, what to do next,)_ " he thought to himself as he sifted through his designs glancing at them briefly before setting them on fire, " _(I should have burned those two ages ago, finished them already,)_ " he watched as plans for gauntlets, foot pads and a suspicious looking chain crinkled into ash in his burning bin.

" _(Here we go, this one,)_ " he glanced at the one he'd decided to work on and burned it before he set to work. " _(Thank the Force for photographic memory.)_ "

Wanting to have this particular design ready for the start of term feast, Andrew set to work.

At three in the morning he had one finished and ready to test, which he did on one of the night watchmen, it was fun. He bumped into Raziel on his way back to his room and asked for some help.

Funnily enough the first one always took longer than the rest did, a second silver ball with a golden cross on top was done and he turned to Raziel.

"Could you make a few copies for me? I can't use magic outside school," Andrew asked, the blue boned demon nodded silently and waved his claws over the ball and there were eight of them.

" _(Is that enough?)_ " He asked, he had to use his mind to speak because he had no jaw.

"Plenty, thanks Raz, we playing tonight I'm getting a little bored," Andrew pouted a little, knowing it never worked.

Raziel shrugged " _(Why not ... Kain is rounding them up, they'll meet us there)_ " they 'jogged' to a sound-proofed room and played around with music and singing until about seven in the morning, mostly television themes for fun.

At that point Andrew's communicator went off, he switched it on and his Master's hologram was there. "Morning Master," Andrew said a little too brightly for that time in the morning.

He yawned back. "Good morning my young apprentice, could you come to my office? Master McKnight has an assignment for you,"

"I'm on my way Master," Andrew shut down his communicator and looked back to the others. "Try and behave yourselves guys?" he joked before dashing off.

"Especially you Sly," Ratchet joked.

"What was _that_ supposed to mean?" Sly demanded, crossing his furry arms.

"Stop stealing shi-?" was all Andrew heard Jak say before the door closed behind him.

A minute later he knocked on Jarod's office door. "Come in?" Andrew walked in and bowed to the two Masters there, Jarod Cooper was slightly ginger haired with a silver streak on the left which he kept slicked back. Julian McKnight however had all white hair which he grew long and kept in a ponytail which also grew into a short pointed beard.

"I trust you had a pleasant trip, Grandmaster?" Andrew asked politely.

"Yes, young one, the wife wanted to take the train for a change, she's never had much of a head for heights," Julien McKnight replied with a thick Scottish accent.

"Oh, that's a shame," Andrew commented, "I'm not sure what I'd do if I had my wings clipped."

McKnight laughed. "I know just how you feel, laddie. Your Master tells me that you're the finest pilot this temple has seen since I came to teach here one summer, before I was voted Grandmaster."

"You honour me, Master," Andrew bowed once more in respect. "You have an assignment for me, Masters?" Andrew asked.

"Yes, I've been informed that your guests have been getting an unfortunate dose of cabin fever and they're getting desperate to get out of the temple once in a while," McKnight explained, Andrew nodded to indicate that he was keeping up, so Jarod took over.

"Kain has explained that he can disguise himself to look like Vampires found on Earth, which would still leave a problem, _if_ Muggles didn't know they exist," he flopped a newspaper onto his desk, the headline read _"Vampires Exposed, Public Crying out for 'Nosferatu Registration'"_.

"Wow, the Wizarding World has to be freaking out over this one," Andrew said as he picked the paper up and scanned through the article, it seemed that a fledgling vampire broke into a late night Parliament meeting that was going out nationwide on live television, he then went on to actually feed off of three people, but thankfully there were no deaths. "No way will it be possible to cover this up ... six million people watch Parliament TV? Isn't there anything better to watch?"

The two masters laughed at that. "The point, Andrew, is that the other four are still going to be conspicuous if they go out in public, especially since two of them have tails, so we'd like you to attempt to make a device that will hide their appearances. I understand you suffer from Nodormiunus, and that while you can't sleep, you're quite the inventor" McKnight explained.

"Well I was already working on something for Raz, something he can feed on which hopefully should temporally turn him back into his vampiric form, I was hoping to test it today, as for the other three maybe holo watches?" Andrew asked, and the two Masters nodded.

"Our thoughts exactly, when can you get started?" Jarod asked.

"As soon as Mel's lessons are over today, Dumbledore sometimes lets me help out which is fun since he permits me to use Magic outside of school for teaching purposes," Andrew grinned.

"Very well then I suggest that you go and see if he needs you today then, he arrived just before we called," McKnight said as he waved the young Padawan off.

In another room Mel was sitting with Dumbledore. "So what are you teaching me today, Sir?" she asked.

"Today we are starting your end of year exams, if you just remember everything I have taught you over the past few weeks, you should pass with flying colours and be with students your own age at Hogwarts," Dumbledore explained and Mel couldn't help letting out a groan, which caused him to smile sympathetically.

Just then there was a knock on the door "Enter," Dumbledore called and Andrew entered.

"Need any help today, Professor?" he asked as he entered.

"I'm sorry Andrew, but we are performing end of year exams today," Dumbledore replied, causing Andrew's face to drop.

 **Flashback**

Mel was excited, she had a wand in her hand, which Dumbledore had lent her for lessons, and was about to take her first attempt at casting a spell.

"Now, Andrew, you have my permission as Headmaster, to perform magic under my supervision," Dumbledore said, smiling.

"Won't I get tracked by the Ministry, Sir?" Andrew asked.

"Yes, but as I said last week, there are exceptions to the law, such as large gatherings where it is all but impossible to tell who cast what, moments of self-defence and now, where someone such as myself grants permission," the Professor explained. "Don't worry, I will take full responsibility."

Andrew nodded and drew his wand, focusing on the feather sitting on the table between himself and Mel. He drifted his wand from left to right and flicked the tip at the feather. "Wingardium Leviosa." he incanted.

The feather drifted into the air, circled the light bulb above and floated down to the table again. Dumbledore instructed Mel to copy Andrew and she did, though not as gracefully as her fellow Padawan.

"How come Andrew's attempt was so much cleaner, Sir?" Mel asked. "Is it because he's had more practise?"

"Not at all," Dumbledore answered. "You must understand Melanie, a wand chooses its wizard, and the wand in your hand has not chosen you. It will suffice for the purpose of practise, but would not serve you well in school. Not to worry though, one day, soon, you will go to Diagon Alley and visit Mr Ollivander for your own wand."

Mel let out a sigh. "I won't deny, that's a relief Sir." she said.

They carried on with the lessons, Mel was being pushed hard by Dumbledore, he was determined that she study with students of her own age when she started at Hogwarts and therefore needed to cover everything Andrew studied over a year, in just eight weeks.

Whenever they covered theory, Andrew worked on a little project of his own. After the first month, he stopped sleeping and, with permission from Dumbledore, had his first experience of Floo Powder, which he used to travel to Hogwarts to use the library for research.

 **End Flashback**

"Um, mind if I sit in, I've been given a project or two to try and get done before going back to school and since this room's going to be quiet it's fairly perfect to do a bit of drawing," Andrew asked, Dumbledore nodded and motioned him to sit next to Mel as he passed her the first exam.

To start with Andrew took his watch off and sketched it out, then he added schematics of the inside and stared at it intently, picking out which pieces could be replaced and what programming any new parts would need in order for the watch to function as needed.

As he was half way through the design, Dumbledore took a seat next to him and looked over his shoulder, taking a fascination for Andrew's inventions and wondering what it was supposed to do and how it worked.

Ten minutes later Dumbledore noticed a message on the page, it said 'Permission to use magic sir?', he raised his eyebrows and pointed his wand at the page and the word 'Granted' appeared underneath.

Smiling, Andrew retracted his wand from his lightsaber, pointed it at his watch and said "Duplicus!" causing an exact copy to appear next to the original.

Dumbledore and Mel stared at Andrew, Dumbledore looked shocked and Mel looked impressed.

"I have never heard of that spell, Andrew," Dumbledore stated calmly, this scared Mel since she knew he was over a hundred and fifty years old. Andrew, however, was not surprised.

"No shock there, I invented it. I've actually been dying to try it for the past week." Andrew explained with a smile.

"I feel I should warn you against mass experimentation with new spells, Andrew," Dumbledore cautioned. "New spells need to be tested for safety and approved by the Committee for Experimental Charms," he explained. "You will need to show a representation of _all_ theory which went towards developing your spell and demonstrate its function."

"If it is deemed safe, it may well be taught to students at Hogwarts and other schools all over the world, failing that, it may be deemed dangerous and illegal." he explained.

"And if I make any further developments to it?" Andrew asked.

"You will need to inform them and possibly have it retested," Dumbledore answered.

"Um, if you were the representative ...?" Andrew started his obvious question.

Dumbledore smiled, seeing right through the boy. "I would say that the spell seems perfectly safe and acceptable, if you like I can send an Owl to a friend I have in that department and request a visit tomorrow,"

"Department, Sir?" Mel asked.

"Yes of the Ministry of Magic, they are responsible for keeping Magic a secret from Muggles, part of which includes monitoring underage magic, in fact if I were not here to supervise then the two of you might be in severe trouble and Andrew might in fact be expelled by law and his wand destroyed," Dumbledore explained.

"I take it someone there is having a bad day thanks to that vampire last night," Andrew wondered aloud. "Anyway I better take this away and make a prototype," he put his own watch back on and carried the copy away, "have fun Mel" he joked as he ran off.

"Um, Andrew," Dumbledore called, stopping Andrew before he opened the door. "How exactly _did_ you invent that spell?"

"Oh, well first I came up with the idea of copying any item perfectly, so I thought if anywhere would have a list of currently existing spells, it would be the library at Hogwarts. So I spent a night looking up that info, then I studied how new spells get invented. So then one thing led to another and I came up with this spell." Andrew explained.

"And, knowing your memory, none of your research is written down," Dumbledore guessed with a knowing smile.

"Yes, sir, that's right." Andrew then sighed. "I take it that the committee needs everything written down."

"Yes, they will," Dumbledore answered.

"Well, that'll give me _something_ to do tonight." Andrew smiled and waved as he left Mel to her exam.

"Can I have that time added, Sir?" Mel asked, Dumbledore chuckled a little and rewound his clock.

After getting back to his room which doubled up as a lab, he sat as his desk and opened the spare watch up, got together the parts he needed and got to work, by lunch time he'd finished.

"I hate working so fast at times," he whined as he stood up and went to find Sly, he had the bigger tail so he'd be the best test run, if the watch could disguise him perfectly then it would work perfectly on Ratchet and Jak, at least in theory. But then his stomach grumbled and he realised he hadn't eaten at all since before he went to work fixing the hyper meditation room.

" _(Okay ... lunch first,)_ " he decided, after checking the clock, and went to eat.

Luckily he bumped into Sly when he sat down with Mel; strangely enough the guy was eating a fish stew.

"I thought Raccoons ate nuts, like Squirrels," Andrew said before taking a bite of his sandwich, which he started gagging on when he tasted peanut butter.

"Nah I eat about anything I can get my paws on," Sly answered, he gave Andrew a side-glance and stole the rest of his sandwich, but Andrew caught his wrist and slapped the watch on.

"Test it," the Raccoon was ordered while the young Jedi washed his mouth out, he wasn't exactly a fan of nuts of any kind. Sly gave him a confused look and Andrew pressed one of the buttons.

Suddenly an eighteen year old man was sat there; he had grey hair with black streaks, blackened eye sockets, dark brown eyes and, thankfully, no tail.

Being a little curious, Mel felt around to see if Sly's tail was in fact gone, but she smiled in an 'I'm slightly confused' way when Sly suddenly went rigid. "Found it?" she asked.

"Yeah the watch creates a holographic field around your body which hides anything that isn't human, but your tail is still there, so you can accidentally brush somebody with it and bring up some um, awkward questions," Andrew explained, noting that Sly's ears weren't showing either.

Sly took the watch off, knowing Andrew needed to make more, so he went back to his room, calling Raziel as he went, without an answer.

Forgetting about it, Andrew got down to making Raziel's 'medicine', eating a ham sandwich he'd taken from the mess hall. About an hour later he had a concoction ready to try and he called Raziel again.

"( _Raz, could you come here please?_ )" Andrew asked.

"( _Where are you?_ )" He answered this time.

"( _My room_ )"

There was a knock on Andrew's door, he waved his hand and the door opened, revealing Raziel.

"Got one ready, try this" Andrew announced as he picked up a large phial with a misty swirl inside and passed it to the demon before him.

"( _What_ should _this do?_ )" Raziel asked.

"Well, it _should_ give you enough energy to revert to your vampiric form, you'll still need to feed from souls, but you'll look like a vampire," Andrew explained.

Without another thought Raziel pulled back his cowl and made a sound much like taking a deep breath, and the soul floated from the phial and into Raziel's throat.

At first both of them thought that it hadn't worked, but then Raziel doubled over in pain as his wings repaired themselves, first the membranes then the bones, which snapped into place, the next thing to return was his jaw bone, then skin covered his body and a pale-skinned, yellow-eyed, bat-winged vampire was on all fours before the young Jedi.

"Right … now just wait here and just ... don't move, I'll get you some clothes," Andrew said and ran from the room.

After searching for two minutes, Andrew found Kain and asked for help, he explained what had happened and Kain conjured some leather leggings in Raziel's size and gave them to the Padawan.

But unfortunately when Andrew got back to his room Raziel had reverted to his demonic form.

"Okay then, give me a minute, get those leggings on, and I'll see if I can make it more potent," Andrew suggested while helping the demon to his feet.

"( _Was it supposed to be so painful?_ )" Raz gasped, taking huge gulps of calming air that he didn't really need.

"Well thinking on it I'm not too surprised, think about it, you're re-growing the bones from your wings, and your jaw, that's bound to hurt, but hopefully we'll be able to make this a much stronger dosage, strong enough to last twenty four hours." Andrew explained.

"( _The other option is to just get used to it, since I now know what to expect I can ready myself in advance,_ )" the demon suggested.

"True, but this one should at least last longer," Andrew said as he handed another phial to his friend.

When the vampire Raziel stood before him once more Andrew asked how long the previous dose lasted. "About five minutes," he said, shocking himself, "I never thought that I'd be so happy to actually _hear_ my voice again," he mused.

Andrew laughed and went to work on the rest of the holo-watches, making the suggestion that Raz time how long that dose lasted so that he could make a comparison and calculate how strong a dose would need to be to last a full day.

Raziel nodded and left without another word whilst Andrew thought about how Harry was enjoying his birthday.

 **Well that's all for now (how am I doing so far?) the next chapter will take a while, I'm planning to tell it from number 4, The Burrow and the Temple, so please bear with me.**


	2. Birthday Disaster and Rescue Mission

Chapter 2 – Birthday Disaster and Rescue Mission

 **The Burrow**

Ron was pacing franticly, not once during the summer did Harry reply to a letter from him, Hermione had mentioned by letter that he wasn't replying to her either. He'd also written to Andrew but he hadn't had much chance to write to anyone since he was busy with Jedi duties. Harry wasn't someone who ignored anyone ... ever.

"Mum ..." he started, walking from the living room to the kitchen.

"Ronald no, we are not going to just barge into their home to get Harry, for all we know he simply can't send his owl without attracting Muggle attention!" Mrs Weasley snapped, knowing exactly what he was going to say.

"There is also the fact that Muggles stopped using birds for delivering post centuries ago, so he's probably been forbidden from using his owl, he also cannot use the Muggle postman because he won't know our address," Mr Weasley supplied.

Ron sighed; knowing that arguing wouldn't get him anywhere and walked away dejectedly.

As he was passing through the front room someone grabbed his arm and pulled him into the cupboard under the stairs.

"OI! Mmmph!" he tried yelling angrily at the twins who were now covering his mouth with their hands.

"We're thinking on borrowing Dad's car to go get Harry, interested?" Fred asked in a whisper, Ron didn't need to think, he nodded.

"Good," they both said and uncovered his mouth.

"Andrew might want to help too," Ron said.

"We thought of that, which is why we've got Hermes in our room, come on," George replied as he opened the door and they left, heading up the stairs.

 **Jedi Temple**

Andrew was bored, he'd finished the watches already because Mel was _still_ doing end of year examinations.

He'd just spent the past hour challenging Raziel, Kain, Jak, Ratchet and Sly to an all-out brawl, under the guise of a sparring match, and couldn't think of much to do, so he was in the recreational area of the temple, watching, of all things, a rerun of Thomas the Tank Engine, one of the five-year-olds had set the channel and then hidden the remote.

"Raz?" he asked.

"( _Hmm?_ )" He groaned, obviously being bored himself.

"You think it's physically possible to die of boredom?"

"( _About as possible as me being bored to tears, since I have no tear ducts_ )" he answered.

"Why do you keep talking to him, he never answers back," demanded one of the younger girls, not looking up from her colouring book.

"He's a telepath," Andrew explained resignedly "he talks with his mind,"

Just then Jarod made his presence known.

"Give yourself a few years and you will hear him too," he explained calmly, Andrew chuckled dryly.

"In a way he's like midi-chlorians, when you quiet your mind, you hear them," with that realization he giggled, Raziel too started shaking with mirth.

"Hi Andrew," Mel said as she slumped into a chair, mentally exhausted, "four tests in one day … my _brain_ hurts," she whined.

"( _My heart would bleed for you if I had one_ )" Raziel drawled, Mel just glared at him.

"Shut up Raz!" she snapped, Raziel simply held up his index claw and got told off by Jarod for being rude, not that any of the younglings knew why.

Before he could remove the offending claw, a dark brown, almost black, feathered screech owl perched itself there.

"Oh, hello," Andrew said politely as the owl held out a letter for him.

"( _Get this animal off of me; I'm a demon, not a perch!_ )" Raziel thought bitterly.

As soon as the letter was removed Hermes took off and Andrew read his letter.

 _Hey Andrew,_

 _I worried mate, I've not heard from Harry and I can't get any help from my parents, they're convinced that nothing's wrong, so in their total wisdom, Gred and Forge have come up with a plan to find out what's happened to Harry and rescue him if we have to. I really don't know if you'll get this, because the last letter I got from you said it was 'that time of the year', so I don't know if you're sleeping it off yet._

 _If you are or if that's about to happen then don't worry, the twins and I can handle it, but if not then let me know and I'll see you at Harry's. We're planning on going at night so that the Muggles don't cause us too much trouble._

 _Hope you're good mate_

 _Ron_

 _Ps. can you send me directions to Harry's house?_

Andrew laughed when he'd read the postscript.

"It's from Ron, he and the twins are planning a night-time rescue for Harry and have offered me to come along," he explained.

"Well, you're _not_ planning on going are you?" Mel asked in a suggestive tone.

"Thinking on it, I can always postpone the Committee thing, otherwise I've got nothing else to do tonight and at the very least I could keep them from getting caught or arrested, may I master?" Andrew asked.

Jarod thought it over; then, noticing that Hermes was seemingly waiting to deliver Andrew's answer, said "You'd better start writing those directions, start from a well-known land mark, and then tell them you'll meet them there." Andrew started doing as he was told. "But I have conditions, first, you're to take a shuttle car and have it returned by the latest of five pm tomorrow, and two, I want you to take someone with you in case that Mr Dursley turns violent."

Andrew stopped writing to think on that. "Raz, you up for getting outta here for one night?"

"( _Why me?_ )" He wasn't unwilling, just curious as to why he was the first choice.

"Well, you're quiet, sneaky and blend in to dark places, perfect for a night op," Andrew reasoned, returning to his reply.

"Good points, Andrew," Jarod said with pride. "I'm glad you're with us and not the SAS." he joked.

"That plus you're handy with a sword and telekinetic, both of which would be useful against Harry's uncle," chipped in Mel, having heard storied from Andrew and his Master, and having briefly seen Vernon Dursley at King's Cross back in June.

"( _He is a formidable opponent?_ )" Raziel asked.

"No, just roughly the size, shape and weight of a small whale," Andrew answered absent-mindedly and causing Mel to burst out laughing "… and I didn't mean to say that."

"Out loud," Mel added for him, cackling.

"Andrew, that was rude," Jarod scolded, forcing himself not to laugh.

"I'm sorry, Master, shall I submit an apology to Mr Dursley in writing?" Andrew asked sarcastically, that was it for Jarod, he turned and left the room to save face.

"Didn't you say that Master Cooper sent Harry a Holo-com?" Mel asked.

"Yeah, and Harry isn't exactly stupid, he can follow an instruction manual. I can't think of any reason why he wouldn't use it," Andrew answered, still writing. "Unless his family confiscated it, or worse."

"You thinking they sold it?" Mel asked, Andrew shrugged, not wanting to commit himself.

After Andrew finished writing his directions he added 'I'm in, see you at Privet Drive, tomorrow night, that'll give you guys a chance to stock up on some sleep, by the way, I'm bringing someone else too in case we screw up'.

 **Privet Drive**

Harry sat on his bed, having suffered the worst birthday in his life, not that any of them were anywhere near good.

First he woke up thinking that his friends had forgotten his existence, then his birthday was ignored altogether, which is nothing unusual at the Dursley house, then he was forced to stay in his room and act like he didn't exist.

Then a house-elf turns up and explains that he's the reason he hadn't gotten any letters or the parcel from Jarod at the temple. Now thanks to that same elf he wasn't going to go back to Hogwarts because his uncle had found out that he couldn't, legally, use magic outside of school.

"Hedwig, if we ever see that elf again, remind me to kill him?" she only blinked from her cage in reply, Harry sighed and got himself ready for bed, since he couldn't open the door to use the toilet, it was locked.

The next morning he was woken up by the sound of drills, he unwillingly opened his eyes, searched around for his glasses and looked out the window, only to see, to his horror, that bars were being installed on his window.

There was a rattling noise behind him and he saw a cat flap of sorts had been installed into his door so that food, if you could call it food, could be pushed into the room for him.

Harry was let out once that morning, so that he could use the toilet and whilst at it, brush his teeth, then he was unceremoniously shoved back into the room with nothing to do but sit in there and wait for his next meal, which didn't come until late afternoon, by which time Harry's insides were burning with hunger, this time he forced himself not to eat it all so that Hedwig could have something and not starve herself, she looked disgusted at her 'food'.

"I'm sorry Hedwig, but we don't have anything else," he said as he placed the empty dish back by the flap.

He went to bed, having nothing better to do, and quickly fell asleep, mainly due to boredom.

He was woken from a bad dream by Ron knocking on his window.

"Ron? What are you … what the …?" Harry couldn't finish his sentence; Ron, Fred and George were all sitting in a car that was hovering outside his bedroom window.

Andrew watched with slight shock as Ron explained to Harry what they had planned whilst Raziel was just amused. "Flying car, no thrusters, no wings, just a car that's flying. Why do I get the feeling I still haven't seen everything yet?"

Andrew was brought out of his stupor when he saw Harry tying something around the bars over his window.

"Whoa, whoa, WHOA, guys," he hissed up to them, he looked at the gloves on his hands and leapt at the wall, much to his friends' surprise, he stuck to the wall and started to climb.

"Before you ask, I've been reading _way_ too many comics lately," he said as he pulled his lightsaber from his belt, "this'll be quieter, by the way, did you get my birthday gift?"

"Yeah, along with everything else that's been owled to me, but it's locked up with my other magic-related stuff," Harry explained, and they all nodded.

"Ready down there?" Andrew asked quietly, Raziel answered, telepathically. Andrew cut the bars and asked Harry to give them a nudge, they fell, swinging on the rope Ron had tied to them, and Raziel caught them, not even stumbling.

Andrew pulled himself in and Raziel leapt through the open window in one bound, having already left the bars on the lawn.

"Right, where's your stuff?" Andrew asked.

"In the cupboard under the stairs, be careful of the bottom step, it creaks," Harry explained whilst Fred started passing Hedwig and anything else that Harry wanted out to Ron.

Andrew reached into the force and found the lock on the door, then drifted his hand towards the hinges of the door and there was a click as it opened, Andrew dived out onto the landing and the other boys noticed a distinct clicking noise as Raziel followed the Jedi out of the room.

The two leapt down the stairs, Andrew using his 'spider-gloves' to pull himself into the hallway to stick to a wall with the matching boots while Raziel simply bounded off a wall to avoid the creaking step.

In the bedroom it seemed to the boys that Andrew was talking to himself in hushed tones.

"Crap" they heard.

"( _What?_ )" Raziel answered.

"… it's a padlock,"

"( _So?_ )"

"... they tend to make a fair bit of noise when broken, besides I want to leave no evidence that we were here if I can,"

"( _Are you thinking what I'm thinking?_ )"

"… yes I am,"

"( _The hinges,_ )"

"… I agree,"

There was the tiny sound of scratching metal as the screws in the cupboard's hinges were undone, followed by the trunk scraping across the carpet and finally more scratching as the screws were replaced.

"Right, you get to the top of the stairs and I'll send this up,"

"( _Don't forget the step,_ )"

"… yeah, I know. Just use the walls, but not your claws, they'll leave a tell-tale sign that someone vandalized the place,"

A few seconds later, Raziel walked through the doorway, easily carrying the trunk by himself while Andrew scaled the wall using one hand and his feet while carrying Harry's post. "I'd been wondering what happened to that communicator we sent you," he said pointedly as he nodded to one package under his arm.

"We got everything?" he asked, they nodded. "I'll take the trunk in my car, get going," he shut the door and locked it. "Raziel, put the trunk down and untie the bars, I'll send the trunk down to you."

Raziel nodded and jumped out of the window, he took hold of his wings and used them to glide gracefully and silently to the ground. Once there, he untied the bars and looked intently to the open window.

Andrew levitated the trunk out of the window and dropped it as George pulled the rope back into the car. By now Andrew had left the bedroom, shut the window and had waited for Raziel to levitate the bars back into place.

Andrew used make-shift webbing to hold the bars in place, by the time anybody woke up they'd have disintegrated, and then used his lightsaber to weld the bars back together.

He pushed off the wall with his legs, shot a web-line to the car and safely made his way to the ground. Fred, who was driving the flying car, waited for the Jedi and demon to place the trunk in their boot, throw them a two-way radio, jump into the front seats and start driving before he moved anywhere.

"I take it you're planning to follow us," George said into the radio.

" _Yep_ ," Andrew replied.

"How exactly," Ron asked when George pressed the talk button, "we're flying; you'll not be able to keep up."

By this time Harry was wearing a knowing smile, but the others played it up to him being happy over Hedwig's release from her cage.

" _Oh yeah? Watch this!_ " Andrew challenged as the car below picked up speed dangerously, their jaws dropped when they saw it transform from a car into a small jet powered aircraft and joined them in the air Andrew laughed over the radio, " _Judging by those looks, I'd say you're impressed,_ "

They nodded numbly and Raziel motioned for them to lead on and so Fred did.

While they flew, Harry filled them in on his visit from Dobby and read his letters. When he got to his birthday presents he became confused by Andrew's, he held it up to the window and said, "Andrew, what is this?"

From his cockpit Andrew squinted across. " _Oh that's your own lightsaber, it's not been set to anyone yet, so the first person to activate it will be the only person who can use it safely, I was hoping to teach you to fence during my spare time this year, if you're interested, if not they're good for opening doors at the very least,_ " he explained.

"That'd be great, when do we start?"

" _Not now!_ " Andrew joked then promised to give Harry a quick lesson later that day.

It was quite amusing, mainly to Harry and the pair in the shuttle car, to hear about how angry Percy was when he found out that the twins had used Hermes without permission, regardless of the fact that he would have said 'no' even if asked.

Just as the sky was beginning to pale George pointed out a main road.

" _Does that road go by your house?"_ Andrew asked, Ron nodded to him. _"Then I'd suggest you land and go by the road, you're a bit conspicuous,_ " Andrew suggested, Fred agreed with him and started his decent, only for Andrew to then overshoot them.

He quickly made a transformation landing but was still ahead, George told Andrew that they'd have to make a turn off the road, which he missed, and he made an impressive handbrake turn to swing around and still make the country lane, which doubled up as a driveway, without either hitting anything or damaging his car.

When Fred stopped his car they were sitting outside a small garage, Andrew blocking them in slightly, everybody got out and the non-family members looked at The Burrow.

"( _Just so you know Andrew, you're not the only one who thinks this looks bizarre,_ )" Raziel stated simply.

The others turned to look at him, hearing him for once; Andrew chuckled and patted the demon on the shoulder.

"No my friend, you are," he said. "Trust me, I've seen weirder than _this_."

"I thought that guy was a … what's the word?" Ron asked.

"Mute?" Harry suggested and Ron nodded.

"( _In the sense of being verbal, yes I am a mute,_ )" Raziel pulled his cowl down, to his collar bone, to show his face, but they didn't recoil from him. "( _I am only able to speak through telepathy, speech of the mind, I'm surprised that your minds are quiet enough to actually hear me when they were not only hours ago,_ )"

"Stress? Adrenalin?" Andrew offered with a shrug.

Fred shrugged too and quickly changed the subject to tell everyone the plan, sneak in, go to bed and pretend that Harry turned up in the middle of the night when they were called for breakfast.

"( _He honestly doesn't think that will work … does he?_ )" Raziel asked, focusing on letting only Andrew hear his thoughts.

Andrew looked at him shrewdly. "(Okay, aside from the fact that that won't explain us being here _, what are you not telling me?_ )" Andrew asked.

Raziel didn't answer Andrew directly, instead he spoke to the group.

"( _That won't work,_ )" he told them.

"Why?" George asked, mock insult in his voice, Raziel only covered his face again and pointed at the house, right where Ron was looking, and he was already frozen in fear.

Mrs Weasley was marching towards them, scattering chickens, some of which retreated into the patch of corn crops, with a look of pure thunder on her face.

Andrew and Raziel instinctively took a step back. "You saw her through the kitchen window didn't you," Andrew muttered, Raziel only nodded and stepped into the car to put on some leggings and take his 'medication'.

"Ah," said Fred.

"Oh dear," said George, both of them sounding like men resigned to the gallows.

Their mother stopped in front of them, hands on her hips.

"So," she said, her tone matching the look on her face, Andrew took another step, ready to use his car for cover.

"Morning Mum," George said, sounding cheerful and like nothing was wrong.

"( _Idiot!_ )" Andrew thought and took cover by diving back and sliding over the bonnet of his car.

"Have you any idea how worried I've been?" Mrs Weasley asked in the deadliest of whispers, in the passenger seat of the car, Raziel leaned across the driver's seat and pressed the down switch for the driver's window.

"They should be running by now," Andrew whispered.

"Or taking a step back," Raziel added with a nod.

"Why aren't they at least _cowering_ before her? Can't you feel her anger from here? Wait, don't answer that! You're a telepath."

By now Fred had tried to explain but that had just gotten her started on a tirade, which was mostly a guilt trip, based on a list of what was making her worried about them.

Then she mentioned how she never had to deal with something like this from their brothers, Fred muttered one name sulkily, though Andrew never heard which name, and that was it, she exploded.

Every measure of Andrew's courage and self-control was needed to keep him from diving through the open window, starting the car and driving like a bat out of hell in the first direction he saw which happened to be away from 'the scary lady'.

After she seemed to be finished she turned to Harry, Andrew felt sorry for him, he understandably took a step back, but she only said she was pleased to see him and then asked where the other two had disappeared to.

Andrew quickly grabbed his handkerchief tied it to the handle of his lightsaber and waved it from his hiding place, behind the front wheels of the car.

It had the desired effect of breaking the ice and loosening the tension because Mrs Weasley laughed.

"You can come out now, she's finished shouting," Ron called as Andrew tentatively poked his head above the bonnet.

"So, how about some breakfast?" she asked, Andrew nodded ad Raziel stepped from the car, Mrs Weasley froze. "Vampire!"

"Whoa, calm down, he only looks like a vampire to blend in, your sons can confirm that he didn't look like a vampire five minutes ago, besides, how many vampires do you see with wings? When do you see a vampire out in daylight?" Andrew reasoned, jumping in between Raziel and Mrs Weasley's raised wand.

"How'd you do that?" Fred asked.

"Long story" Andrew answered.

"The short version is this," Raziel added, holding up another vial of his medication and making the boys jump at the fact he'd spoken aloud.

After listening to Andrew's explanation of Raziel's 'medication' and how he used to be a vampire but was now a demon, Mrs Weasley lowered her wand and chose to give Raziel the benefit of the doubt. Turning around and ushering her sons into the house.

Mrs Weasley started making breakfast, glaring angrily at her sons from time to time and muttering to herself while politely declining the help that Raziel offered.

"Of course I don't blame _you_ dear," she said to Harry, tipping far too many sausages onto his plate, but then he did look underfed. "Arthur and I have been worried about you too. Just last night we were saying we'd come and get you ourselves if you hadn't written to Ron by Friday …"

"You never told me!" Ron shouted indignantly.

"That doesn't give you the right to fly an illegal car halfway across the country; you could have been seen by anyone!" his mother shouted back.

"She's got a point, for goodness sake if I hadn't have stopped you ripping the bars off the window there's no telling who you could've woken up," Andrew pointed out.

"It was cloudy Mum," Fred offered with his mouth full.

"You keep your mouth shut while you're eating!" she snapped as she flicked her wand at the sink and the dishes began washing themselves.

"Can you teach me that?" Andrew asked, you could almost see the stars of admiration in his eyes, but no one heard him.

"What would you like to eat?" Mrs Weasley asked Raziel.

"If I were to eat human food I would become violently ill, I would not wish to dishonour your cooking by vomiting, please forgive me," he answered, bowing his head apologetically.

"Uhhh, translation?" Harry asked.

"Basically vamps can't eat like we do without throwing up and he doesn't want to be rude," Andrew explained. "Besides, he's only had a stomach for the past ten to fifteen minutes."

Just then Andrew heard a scream and whipped his head in the general direction of the stairs, only to catch a glimpse of red hair as it disappeared around the banister.

"Ginny," Ron explained as breakfast was placed in front of Andrew "my sister. She's been talking about Harry all summer."

Andrew removed his gloves so that he could eat and George remembered something. "Why were you wearing those, it wasn't cold?"

Andrew leant back in his chair and lightly slid his fingertips down the wall, and then with the same hand he placed a glove on and tried again, his fingertips didn't budge.

"As I told both Harry and Ron in what few letters I've had chance to write, I've not been sleeping lately, when that happens, I tend to invent things to pass the time at night, and earlier I said that I've been reading too many comics lately, namely Spider-Man, with these gloves I can stick to and climb walls," he explained.

"Cool," Ron said, thinking the idea of climbing a wall by his fingertips interesting, but Harry started laughing.

"What?" Andrew asked.

"Now we just need to make you the costume and you're the real Spider-Man," Harry explained. Andrew cocked his head to the side, slightly puzzled, "well, most Jedi can see things before they happen, have quick reflexes, and last night you were sticking to walls and spinning webs, add the right costume and you could be the real thing," Harry elaborated and Andrew started laughing with him, picturing it in his head.

"So … what else do you get up to at night?" Fred asked, trying to avoid getting confused.

"Well, myself, Raz, another vampire, two aliens and a raccoon have formed a band and we tend to play through the night, Raz and Kain, the other vamp, don't need sleep but unfortunately the others do, so last night and the night before I was bored since all of my projects are completed, but thanks for the idea Harry," Andrew rambled, Harry gave him a questioning look, but Andrew didn't explain.

"Cool, you're in a band, what're you guys called?" George asked.

"We haven't come up with a name yet, mostly we just make a load of noise or play TV theme tunes." Andrew answered, before adding, "Like um, 'Where Everybody Knows Your Name' from Cheers." Everyone in the room game him confused looks.

"Were we even born when that show was running?" Harry asked.

"Uh, Harry? It's _still_ on!" Andrew exclaimed. "Though I was just over a year old when it first aired."

"Oh, I didn't know that, Dudley used to watch it years ago, but I thought it got cancelled or something because he stopped watching it, I think it was about five years ago?"

"Ah, by then Coach had died and Diane had left, personally I think the show's been going downhill a little since then." Andrew answered.

"Your memory scares me sometimes," Harry chuckled, leaving the other boys looking at each other, confused.

"What's tee-vee?" Ron asked, starting Harry's and Andrew's turn to gape, at Ron.

"You're kidding right?" Harry asked.

"Don't worry yourselves dears," Mrs Weasley said soothingly. "A lot of wizarding families don't use Muggle things in their homes, unless their Muggle-Born or married to Muggles, then they struggle to learn how to use such things."

"Oh!" Andrew exclaimed, snapping his fingers and changing the subject completely. "A word of advice for you, if I were you, I'd try to skip the start of term feast this year," Andrew added cryptically.

"Why?" Ron asked horror-struck.

"It's going to be a ' _blast_ '," Andrew answered with an impish grin.

Nothing more was said until the five plates were empty at which time Fred tried suggesting going to bed, but his mother wouldn't hear of it, it was their own fault if they were tired and that they were to de-gnome the garden, she told Harry that he could go to bed, but he offered to help and was keenly interested.

"What about you dear, we have a couple of spare beds if you want to use one," she offered to Andrew.

"Nah, even if I wanted to I'm not going to be getting any sleep for at _least_ another week, besides, I assisted in rescuing Harry so I'll take a share in the punishment," the look on his face said 'and you're not going to change my mind', so the subject was dropped.

A minute or two later they were all in the back garden, Mrs Weasley excluded and the Weasley's had shown Harry and Andrew both what a gnome was and how to de-gnome.

"So let me get this straight, you find a gnome, and you just hurl him out of the garden?" Andrew asked.

"Yeah, that's pretty much it, we tend to compete on how far we can get them though," Fred answered as he tried to beat Ron's distance.

"There's a 'cruelty to animals' joke here somewhere," Andrew said out loud. "Soon as I think of it, I'll let you know."

Harry tried to be kind to the gnomes by just dropping one over the hedge, but it ended up biting his finger and flying nearly fifty feet away after he finally dislodged it.

"My turn?" Andrew asked, holding his hand out to a bush, George nodded and Andrew raised his catch into the air, he'd been holding it still for more than a minute.

Out of the corner of his eye Andrew noticed Ginny spying on Harry, and he decided to show off a little. The gnome started spinning slowly in the air, the speed slowly increased until the gnome's movements were nothing but a blur before it shot away, out of the garden and nearly eighty feet away.

"I think we have a winner," Ron joked, then he noticed Ginny and she was shocked at what the gnome had been doing, Andrew waved her over and she came.

"Who's up for me finishing this?" Andrew asked and they all nodded, knowing he couldn't do so as quickly as he claimed, but Andrew just flung his arms out towards the ground and slowly raised them, every remaining gnome levitated into the air.

"Wow!" Ginny said, awed.

"How are you _doing_ this?" the twins asked together.

"Put simply? 'I am one with the Force, and the Force is with me'," Andrew stated matter-of-factly as the gnomes started to spin at an extremely fast pace. "I'd advice that you get behind me."

Harry, Ron, Fred, George and Ginny quickly moved, however Raziel stayed put, seemingly not bothered.

At first Andrew only shot one gnome, then another, then it started to look like a Gatling gun loaded with gnomes which was picking up speed until only one gnome was left, which was deliberately shot at the back of Raziel's head with blinding speed, except the demon simply tilted his head to the side and the gnome sailed past to join it's fellows.

"Was that a challenge, human?" Raziel asked in a dangerously low voice, not bothering to even look over his shoulder.

"No, just an opportunity for you to show off."

In the distance the front door slammed.

"Dad's home!" George announced and they started heading for the kitchen.

Once they got in a thought struck Andrew "Uhhh, what time is it?" Harry looked at his watch.

"Just gone ten, why?"

"I should contact my Master, he'll want to know how things went," with that he pulled a holo-communicator from his robes and activate it. "Jarod Cooper." he commanded clearly and a few moments later his Master's face appeared

"Master," Andrew greeted.

"Andrew, I take it that things went well?" Jarod asked,

"Yes, Harry's at The Burrow," Jarod gave him a questioning look, "that's where the Weasley's live," he elaborated. "When would you like me and Raziel to return?"

"Well the car's been booked out until five; you need to be back by then," Jarod answered, Andrew nodded, said his goodbyes and shut of his communicator.

Mr Weasley was slumped in a chair, but now his eyes were fixed on Andrew's communicator with wonder, 'feeling' what he wanted, he slid the device in his hand across the table for the older man to look at.

Mr Weasley started explaining why he 'was' so tired, while examining the communicator with keen interest, Mrs Weasley gave her husband a telling off for the flying car whilst informing him that Harry was there, but the poor man was so tired his brain must have been going a little slow, when he did notice Harry he jumped in slight shock.

Mrs Weasley shouted about Fred, George and Ron flying the car to Harry's and back, Mr Weasley seemed impressed and then corrected himself and 'tried' to tell them off and failed miserably.

Ron motioned for Harry and Andrew to make a hasty exit and Raziel followed.

At the bottom of the staircase Raziel asked which floor Ron's bedroom was on, Ron told him it was the top floor and Raziel agreed to meet them there, using his wings he flew up the narrow gap between the banisters.

"Need a lift?" Andrew offered, reminding the other two boys that Ginny was still there, she nodded shyly and he knelt on one knee so that she could hop on his back. "Hold on tight," he suggested while pulling on his gloves.

She tightened her grip on his shoulders and fastened her ankles around his stomach; he leapt at the wall and started scaling his way along the wall while Harry and Ron walked next to him.

"Isn't that hard for you?" Ron asked.

"You'd think so, weight wise, but it's kind of a job requirement for Jedi to be in great shape," Andrew explained as they climbed. "You'd be hard pressed to find a single Jedi who couldn't at least lift their own body weight to climb a rock wall."

"Oh, I thought you just trained to use a sword and the Force," Ron replied.

"Not even close, we train night and day to get into and stay in peak physical condition," Andrew told them. "Throw in a little Force-assistance and most Knights can easily lift a fire engine, with full equipment and crew, completely off the ground."

"Wow!" Ginny breathed before slapping a hand over her mouth.

When they got to the third floor, Ginny asked quietly if she could be dropped off, Andrew set her down carefully on the floor and she went into her room, moving quickly and slamming her door.

"You know, it's kinda weird seeing her so shy, normally she never shuts up," Ron pointed out, Andrew flipped off the wall and walked with them.

"She's nervous, I can feel that much, I have a vague idea why, but I'll keep it to myself," he explained.

Two more floors up, they reached Ron's room, though Raziel wasn't anywhere to be seen, there was sounds of a scuffle coming from the attic.

"Don't worry about that, that's just the ghoul," Ron explained.

"Fair enough, but where the hell is …" Andrew cut off after hearing someone sound like the wind had been knocked out of them, he charged for the attic only to find Raziel, wraith blade 'in hand', battling with the ghoul.

"Die foul beast!" Raziel yelled as he charged it, Andrew shot out a web-line and pulled him back

"What are you doing!" Raziel demanded.

"I think the Weasley's consider this creature to be a pet, this isn't a bedroom, it's the attic," Andrew explained as the duo beat a hasty retreat.

When they got back to Harry and Ron, the latter snickered "It looks like he got you good," he laughed.

Raziel raised an eyebrow and Andrew pointed out a large gash on Raziel's forehead, which was already becoming a mere scratch.

They spent the day just lounging about, aside from Andrew teaching Harry how to at least not chop his own arm off with his lightsaber.

At about three in the afternoon, everyone just finishing their lunches, Andrew announced that he had to be going, and asked which way London was.

"I'll be needing that communicator back too, Mr Weasley," Andrew said apologetically, holding his hand out. Mr Weasley handed it back with a wistful look. "Harry's been given one if you want to keep toying around, just remember to R.F.M Harry."

"R.F.M?" Percy asked.

"Read the Frigging Manual!" the Jedi laughed.

The family came to see him off, Raziel calmly stepped into the passenger's seat, Andrew passed Harry's trunk to Fred and George, leapt over the car and got in the driver's seat.

"I'll owl Hermione and let her know what happened," he called, Raziel's wings twitched irritably and Andrew started the engine. "I'll see you at Diagon Alley when our letters turn up!"

The Weasleys, plus Harry, waved goodbye, whilst Andrew drove off, spun around and charged for them, Percy, Mrs Weasley, Mr Weasley and Ginny had worried looks plastered on their faces, but the twins, Ron and Harry just smirked and stood their ground as the car transformed into the flight mode and soared over their heads.

 **Well that's it for now, please review, and I'll be back as soon as I can.**


	3. Sleeping in the Alley

Chapter 3 – Sleeping in the Alley

 **The Burrow**

A week after being rescued from the Dursleys, Harry had found that life at The Burrow was _way_ better than at Privet Drive, for one thing, everybody liked him and he could openly talk about magic and school.

Not to mention that he could also get his holiday homework done and avoid detention. He and Ron came down to breakfast one morning to find Ron's parents and Ginny already at the table, Ginny accidentally knocked a porridge bowl to the floor when she noticed him, and Mr Weasley handed them their school letters.

After everybody finished reading their letters a loud beeping was heard, there would be two beeps, then a pause, followed by another two beeps. Harry fished into his pocket and pulled out his holo-com.

He pushed a button which flashed every time the device bleeped and a hologram of Andrew's head appeared above the 'Holocom'.

"Ah good, for a moment there I thought it'd been completely dismantled," he joked. "I just wanted to check, did you guys get your letters today?" Fred nodded in answer. "Cool, so when will you be going to Diagon Alley then?"

"Well Hermione's going next Wednesday and so are we," Ron called from another letter he was reading.

"Okay then, we'll meet you in the Leaky Cauldron?" Andrew suggested.

"'We?'" Mr Weasley asked.

"Yeah, me, Masters Cooper and Bailo, and Mel's starting this year so she's coming too," Andrew answered, he was able to see the entire group since Harry had put the communicator on the table.

"Oh good, Ginny can get to know a classmate before school starts," Mrs Weasley said fondly.

"Uhhh, unfortunately not, Mel's already passed her first year lessons and exams, she's my age, give or take a month or two," Andrew explained apologetically.

"Oh," said Ginny sadly, looking down.

"Cool, well we'll see you there mate," George said and Andrew ended the transmission.

Harry picked up the device and put it back in his pocket with the instruction manual, he'd been having so much fun during the last week that he hadn't taken the time to learn how to use it yet.

The boys, minus Percy went outside to play Quidditch, Ron thought about inviting Andrew and Mel over to join in, so Harry took the holo-com out of his pocket and started reading the instructions out loud.

"'Press the call button once to activate 'panic mode'. This will send out a wave which contacts the nearest holo-coms, where the first to answer will ascertain your location and situation'." Harry read.

"Okay, we don't need _that_!" George stated plainly.

Harry nodded and kept reading. "'To communicate with a specific individual, press and hold the call button, while clearly stating the name of the Jedi you wish to contact'. Simple enough," he pressed the button until it bleeped and said ' _name please_ '. "Andrew Payne." Harry said clearly.

 **Jedi Temple**

Andrew was looking over a calendar with mild concern, the next Wednesday was going to be the earliest that his next coma would kick in, but he'd have to worry about that if or when it happened.

If he fell asleep before going shopping, Jarod would most likely take care of it for him, if he fell asleep whilst there, he and his Master had plans laid out on what to do and they'd be ready.

He was about to go about his normal daily routine when his communicator started beeping, it was a normal 'double beep' to indicate it wasn't a distress call, then it would have been a series of frantic beeps at a higher pitch. He accepted the call and saw Harry's face.

"You rang?" he asked. "You took your time learning to use that thing."

"Yeah, sorry about that," Harry's hologram said as a hand appeared and started scratching the back of his head. "I've been having too much fun this last week."

"I can't say I'm shocked," Andrew answered with a smile. "Spending a week in a graveyard would be more fun than an hour at your Aunt and Uncle's place."

Harry let out a dry laugh. "We're thinking of having a game of Quidditch," he explained. "Do you and Mel wanna come over and join in?"

"I'll ask Master Cooper," Andrew said with a smile and went to find his Master.

The next Wednesday Andrew woke Mel up at about seven am, they hadn't been permitted to go since there were no shuttle cars available and Mel was still in exams for a day or two. She wasn't the type to sleep in; the slightest nudge and she was Force pushing her rouser as if she were being attacked.

After a quick breakfast the two Padawans and their Masters left for Diagon alley, they got there by eight thirty and noticed straight away that the Weasleys hadn't arrived yet.

"Um, did you agree on a time Andrew?" Mel asked, looking around at witches, wizards and even a hag in the corner with awe.

"Now that you mention it … no, we didn't," Andrew answered, just then the fireplace burst into green flames and Fred Weasley stepped out, followed closely by George, the group of Jedi rushed over to greet them. "Ah, Floo Powder, not my favourite way to travel, but it's quick!"

"Well, who should be the first to arrive but the Counts of Chaos Themselves?" Jarod joked.

"Hi Master Cooper," they chorused as their father spun his way out of the fireplace.

"Morning Mr Weasley," Andrew greeted with a wave, a year ago this would have been weird but he'd been using Floo Powder for the last five weeks.

"Ah, I take it that this is your Master, I'm quite intrigued by the Jedi, I've always wondered in fact whether or not you have a little wizard blood in you," he stopped himself from rambling with a look of worry into the fireplace.

"Is something wrong?" Mel asked.

"Harry was supposed to be following me," Mr Weasley stated, just then, every Jedi's head shot to the left and then drifted to the right, as if they were following the progress of a Formula One car.

"I think he just missed his stop," Dela said, she was proven correct when Ron turned up.

"Bloody idiot!" he exclaimed.

"What happened?" George asked.

"He said 'diagonally' instead of 'Diagon Alley', Merlin knows where he's ended up!" Ron said in a slight panic.

"Where who's ended up?" Hermione asked as she arrived with her parents.

"Harry, daft blighter said 'diagonally' when travelling here by Floo Powder," Fred explained, Hermione's eyes looked to the ceiling in exasperation.

"We should go find him," she stated calmly, shaking her head.

Once Mrs Weasley and Ginny arrived they split up, the groups were the twins, Ron and Hermione, Mr and Mrs Weasley and Percy. Jarod, Dela and Hermione's parents, and finally Andrew and Mel offered to keep an eye on Ginny.

They went everywhere, Mr Weasley knew what wizarding families lived close by and so he and his wife went into Muggle London, Percy going with them. The twins took one side of Diagon Alley and Ron and Hermione took the other, asking shop owners if they'd had someone unexpected come out of their fireplace.

The Padawans and Ginny simply walked down the street with the remaining adults keeping an eye out, finally the Masters took Hermione's parents to Gringotts to sort out money.

Once at Gringotts the children split from the adults, there had been no sign of Harry yet.

"What's down there?" Andrew asked, pointing down one of the darker side streets.

"That's Knockturn Alley, they deal in the Dark Arts mostly," Ginny explained, her face clearly saying that she didn't really want to go down there.

"Well we haven't seen him yet, so at least one of us should check down there," Andrew said with determination.

"I'll stay with you Ginny if you want to stay here," Mel offered, but Ginny shook her head.

"Harry m-might be down there, I-I-I'll go with you," she said with a brave face and a shaky voice.

"That's a brave girl, you'll be a Gryffindor for sure," Andrew said, causing her to smile gratefully, and with those words, he led the way into Knockturn Alley.

"Shouldn't we have our lightsabers drawn or something?!" Mel yelled after him, before she and Ginny gave chase.

As soon as the girls caught up to him, Andrew motioned for Ginny and Mel to take cover, he himself had hidden just in time for Draco Malfoy and, he guessed, his father to walk passed.

Ginny tapped him on the shoulder and whispered "That was Draco and Lucius Malfoy, I'm not surprised to see _them_ down here," Andrew nodded and led them onward.

After a minute they found Harry, surrounded by shifty looking people.

"OI!" Andrew yelled, causing the hooded adults to look at him sharply, Mel gripped Harry through the Force and pulled him through the crowd while they were distracted. The two Padawans stood between their friends and the wizards, who drew their wands as the Padawans drew their lightsabers, Andrew using his normal one since he couldn't risk using magic.

The wizards opened fire and the Padawans set to deflecting the curses, slowly moving backwards to get Harry and Ginny out of there. This carried on for about five minutes, the whole time Ginny was clutching onto Harry for dear life, she didn't think him a coward for not fighting; she knew he couldn't risk using magic outside of school.

The whole battle was ended when Hagrid turned up and the wizards decided that their chances weren't as good as they were (not that they were great to start with).

"What d'yeh think yer doin' down here?" he demanded when he got to the group.

"I was lost thanks to Floo Powder," Harry answered while giving Hagrid a hug of thanks.

"We were looking for him; now let's get back to the others shall we?" Andrew said, Hagrid nodded in agreement and led them back to Diagon Alley.

"So you're the infamous Hagrid?" Mel asked, having only seen him at Hogwarts from a distance.

"Yea I am, I know you're a Weasley," Hagrid said pointing at Ginny, "Ginny righ'?" she nodded shyly "but I don' think I know you," he finished in Mel's direction.

"Mel Jacobs, I'm starting this year," Mel said offering her hand.

"Ah yea, I remember, I envy you, bein' taught by Professor Dumbledore personally, that's a righ' treat an' a huge honour," Hagrid said, shaking her entire arm in one hand.

They set off down the street, Harry explaining to Hagrid why he never wrote back to him, but also thanking him for the letters he'd managed to read so far.

Just then Andrew started giving Harry a strange look. "What happened to your glasses Harry?" he asked, bringing attention to the fact that Harry's glasses were broken.

"I landed face first out of the fireplace at Borgin and Burks," Harry explained.

"Blimey 'Arry that's the worst shop in Knockturn Alley, the last place you wanna find yerself in," exclaimed Hagrid just as they walked around Gringotts.

"Harry! Harry, over here!" Hermione shouted, by now everyone had rendezvoused at Gringotts and confirmed that they hadn't found him yet.

"Harry," Mrs Weasley practically screamed, "oh we'd hoped you'd only gone _one_ grate too far," she gave him a rather motherly hug.

"Where'd you end up?" Ron asked.

"Knockturn Alley," Andrew answered.

"At least that's where we found him, surrounded by thugs, we had a real fire fight until Hagrid turned up and scared them off," Mel elaborated.

"Did you see any faces?" Mr Weasley asked, concerned.

"Not really, they had hoods up," Andrew answered.

"Not to mention that I lost count of how many curses I'd deflected after twenty," added Mel.

"I saw Draco Malfoy and his Dad in there, trying to sell off some things," Harry explained, "though Draco looked like he'd rather be _anywhere_ else."

"Doesn't surprise me," Andrew pointed out as Mrs Weasley took Harry's glasses and fixed them with her wand. "I got a bit of a feeling about him during our detention in the forest last year, put simply, he's one hell of an actor."

After that they took a trip into Gringotts so that Harry and the Weasleys could get their money. When they got to the Weasley vault, it was practically empty, and was completely empty when they left.

Once they finished in the bank, Jarod was making suggestions on saving money, his grandfather had one of the Jedi to begin the order publicly and had taught him a few things about spreading money, Mrs Weasley thanked him for the offer but declined, saying that they usually managed with second hand shops.

"Well, at least allow me to join you, second hand establishments usually allow for haggling, and we Jedi can be rather 'persuasive'" Jarod said with a grin.

Andrew stopped dead in his tracks and stared at his Master. "Either you mean your lightsaber, in which case 'who are you!'" he started. "Or you mean mind tricks, in which case, wasn't it you who taught me to never abuse a gift from the Force?"

"I did, my young Padawan," Jarod answered, placing his hand on Andrew's shoulder. "But abusing a gift from the Force is to use it for your own personal gain. Using a gift to help others, is the best use of such a gift."

Mrs Weasley sighed. "If you insist, I get the feeling that you won't take 'no' for an answer,"

Jarod laughed "Dela would you care to assist me?" she nodded and the Masters went off with Molly and Ginny to get her some robes along with Mel, leaving Andrew and the others to sort themselves out.

"Wait, Master!" Andrew called, halting their progress. "I need some money to buy my stuff!" Jarod nodded and fished a pouch out of his pocket, shooting it towards Andrew with the Force. Rather than crack any bones in his hand, Andrew halted it in the air and plucked it out of the air effortlessly. "Thank you!" he called and the three groups went their separate ways. Harry, Ron, Hermione and Andrew to get potions supplies and stationary, Mr Weasley, Percy and the Twins to get some new scales and broom polish and everyone else to get robes.

When they later met up at Flourish and Blotts, Mel and Ginny were talking like lifelong friends, Ollivander had given Ginny a break with her wand and played it off to his fascination of Jedi lightsabers and gratitude to Mel for allowing him to examine hers, plus Andrew showed him the modifications he'd made to combine lightsaber and magic, having decided to pay the wandmaker a visit. To cut a long story short, he gave them a buy one, get one free, Mel paid for hers and Ginny got hers for free.

Mel's robes were slightly more expensive than they could have been because she insisted on having her school robes based on her Jedi ones.

"What's so fancy about those robes?" Ron asked, pointing at Mel's brown robes.

"Well, you notice I don't carry my lightsabers on my waist?" Mel answered, opening her robe to reveal her empty belt.

"Yeah?" Ron asked, wondering why Andrew took a step back. Ron then screamed as Mel released her robe, her hands shot up her sleeves and then as she removed them, there was a lightsaber igniting in each hand. In her left hand was an emerald blade in a forward grip, and in her right hand was an amethyst in a reverse grip.

"Wow, that was fast," Fred applauded. "Isn't it hard? Using that style?" George added.

"Most Jedi study whatever saber form that comes natural to them, and this is natural to me." Mel answered them, deactivating her blades and putting them away. "And keeping the blades up my sleeves makes running easier." she added.

They were waiting in a huge queue at Flourish and Blotts, it seemed that Lockhart, the author of most of their set books, was signing copies of his autobiography.

Whilst they; Harry, Ron, Hermione, Andrew and Mel, were in the queue for books, someone shoved their way past Ron, trying to get a photo for the 'Daily Prophet', standing on his foot in the process.

Harry was noticed by Lockhart and given an entire collection of his books for free whilst Lockhart announced that he was the new Defence Against the Dark Arts teacher at Hogwarts.

"It's funny how that works, the ones who can easily afford things getting them for free," Andrew commented with a shrug, knowing that Harry would give his free copies to one of the Weasleys and buy his own.

"I bet he just loved that," Draco Malfoy said with a light scowl as he came down the steps from the upper floor.

"Why not ask him for yourself and stop assuming things about him." Andrew answered, ignoring the deeper scowl from his father.

"My, my Arthur," he drawled. "I see the Muggle Relations office still isn't paying that well. Your poor daughter can't even get a new cauldron for school."

Mel went wide-eyed at the sheer rudeness, Andrew's face darkened and Draco looked away with a look of shame on his face as his father picked up a book from Ginny's cauldron and examined it.

"What's the point of being an disgrace to the name of 'wizard', if they don't even pay you well for it?" Lucius asked, placing the book back.

"Some of us have a much different idea of what disgraces the name of 'wizard' Malfoy!" Mr Weasley snapped as he took a swing at Mr Malfoy's head.

The children and other customers watched in shock and horror as the two men brawled, knocking over books, shelves and other people. Andrew shook himself out of his stupor and dashed in, he kicked Mr Weasley and then Mr Malfoy in the gut with his right foot, just hard enough to wind them, then Jarod and Dela stepped in to pull the men apart. Just as he was about to start yelling at the older men about setting an example to children, he let out a yawn.

"Oh no, please not now!" Mel said frantically as Andrew started to stumble and, attempt to, shake off the sleepiness. Draco remembered what had happened at school last year and tried to catch the Jedi, but ended up getting tackled into a stack of books which fell on top of them both.

Seeing the commotion, Lockhart stopped signing books and stood up as Harry got out of the crowd and started to dig his friend out from under the books, but Mel simply used the Force to lift all the books at once.

"Is he alright? What's the matter?" Lockhart asked.

"He fell asleep," Harry answered bluntly, choosing not to go into details.

By now Mrs Weasley was there too, trying to pull Andrew off of Draco. "Is he breathing?"

"Yes, just very shallow. He's comatose," explained Mel, looking to Fred and George to help carry him.

In the meantime Dela had run out of the shop in order to fetch a car, so it was now a waiting game, Jarod finished getting the books for both Padawans and the Weasleys, out of his own pocket, and Lucius grabbed Draco by his ear and dragged him from the shop.

Hagrid was passing the shop as the Malfoys passed him in the street, he heard the commotion inside and went in to see what was happening. Dela turned up soon after and Hagrid offered to help carry Andrew out to the car.

Dela and Mel drove back to the temple so that Andrew could quickly put him in the halls of healing for observation and fluids, and everyone else walked, following the lead of Jarod, Harry and Hagrid.

Once they arrived, Jarod led the way to the halls of healing, where only three people could see Andrew at a time, there wasn't much to see, so Harry, Ron and Hermione simply reported on how he was and left it at that.

"We have a few spare rooms, you're more than welcome to stay if you want to be around when he wakes up," Julien McKnight offered, making the Weasleys jump.

"Who might you be?" Arthur asked.

"Julian McKnight, Grandmaster of the Jedi order," he answered, holding out his hand, which Arthur shook.

"Arthur Weasley, this is my wife Molly, my sons, Percy, Fred, George and Ron, and my daughter Ginny," Mr. Weasley said, McKnight shook hands with each as they were introduced.

"I take it that that makes you Harry, and you Hermione," he guessed, shaking hands with them too, they nodded.

It turned out that Hermione's parents wanted to head home, mainly because they had work the next day and wanted their daughter to stay with them, however they left their telephone number so that someone could call when Andrew awoke, then they left.

However the Weasleys took up the offer, deciding that staying in London would make getting to the train station easier on September the first.

The next morning Harry mentioned to Jarod that Andrew had built him a lightsaber and requested a lesson if possible.

"Do you have your weapon with you?" Jarod asked.

"Um, no, it's at The Burrow," Harry answered sheepishly.

"Lesson one of owning a lightsaber, carry it at all times," he pulled his own lightsaber from his belt, "this weapon is my life, at any moment I may need it to defend myself, understand?" Harry nodded.

So Harry spent the day practising lightsaber technique with a training saber used by younglings, that evening Mr Weasley arrived with his car, loaded with trunks, pets, school things and Harry's lightsaber.

So now to take her mind off of Andrew's condition, Mel was sparring with Harry, with the Weasley family watching, mostly all Mel was doing was halting Harry's attacks, and if she got bored, she'd go on the offensive and beat Harry in only one move, using just one blade.

After the tenth time this happened, Harry fell to the floor, in a mixture of exhaustion and frustration.

"What … am I … doing … wrong?" he panted.

"Nothing, except learning, you keep trying the same thing, over and over, but not realizing that it's getting you nowhere," Mel explained, "tell you what, let's take a break and then we'll change tactics, I'll attack and you defend."

Harry nodded, deactivated his emerald-bladed lightsaber and they walked over to Mrs Weasley, sweat poring off his brow. She conjured them some drinks and they spent five minutes, catching their breath and rehydrating.

"Right then, shall we?" and they got back to it, this time Mel attacked, starting off slow, making her attacks obvious and Harry defended, blocking her attacks with ease. Once Harry felt confident about it he started to push back, so Mel picked up her pace, forcing Harry back onto the defensive.

This method carried on for most of the day, Harry would be defensive, getting used to being just a little faster and then being forced back onto the defensive as Mel increased her speed, until they were trading blows back and forth.

By dinner time Jarod and Dela were calling the sparring match to a halt, mainly because they were tiring themselves out, but partially because it was time to eat and neither of them had done so since breakfast.

"You're coming along nicely Harry, if I didn't know better I'd say you were slightly Force-sensitive," complimented Dela.

At the term 'Force-sensitive' Ron gave her a puzzled look. "It means sensitive to the Force, in other words, with training he could be either a Jedi, or a Sith," Jarod explained.

"Studies indicate that seven out of ten people are Force-sensitive, most of which only to the point where they can effectively use a lightsaber, possibly like Harry, but the more sensitive you are the stronger you are with the Force," Mel added.

"But, if Harry _is_ Force-Sensitive, how come we've never detected him before?" she then wondered aloud.

"Magic?" Ron guessed. "Just like the Muggle postman can't find our house, maybe you can't sense 'sensitive' witches and wizards."

"An interesting theory," Jarod answered. "It might be an idea to take a blood test at some time Harry, have your midi-chlorian level counted," he added in passing.

That evening Mel challenged Ron to a game of chess, but they gave up on that since Ron wasn't used to moving the pieces by hand and the twins supplied a wizard chess board, which they had to play out of sight.

It was a spectacular match, which was ended in a stalemate when Ron took out Mel's final bishop and Mel took Ron's rook, leaving both with just kings.

"We could've used you when we went after the Philosopher's Stone last year," Harry laughed, quickly going into the story on that little adventure.

The rest of the week passed rather slowly, Harry kept up his practice and continued to improve, he very much looked forward to the next time he and Andrew had a lesson, and other than that they all took turns in checking on Andrew.

Andrew awoke on the next Thursday, thankfully he hadn't gone pale, but that was thanks to the fluids being pumped into his body.

"Ah. Good morning Andrew; pleasant dreams?" Zan Axfow asked, he was a Master of the healing arts.

Before he answered Andrew downed the glass of water that was passed to him, then he took a deep breath and croaked, "Not bad, what's new in the land of the living?"

"Not much, I'll let your friends know that you're awake," and with that he left the room.

While he was gone his Padawan adjusted Andrew's bed so that he was sitting up. In under a minute, Raziel was there.

"How are you my friend?" he asked.

"I find it surprising how a decent sleep makes someone tired," Andrew joked with a small yawn.

"The logic behind it puzzles me as well," Raziel smiled and sat down as Mel and Harry ran in, looking slightly sweaty.

"What happened to you two? You look more exhausted than I feel," Andrew commented.

"Sparring," Mel said passively.

"Oh, been learning some new moves Harry?"

He nodded with a grin "Trust me, when we next train, you'll be pleasantly surprised."

The rest of that day was spent catching Andrew up on what he missed and helping him get back on his feet.

The next morning Andrew woke up and realized that he couldn't train Harry that day since they had a train to catch.


	4. The Train, Car, Crash and Prank

Chapter 4 – Missed Train, 'Borrowed' Car, Tree Landing and Pranking the Feast

It was only five in the morning, but Andrew felt that he should start getting ready now; there were more for him to wake up this time.

The first thing Andrew had to do was find Ratchet and Jak to try out their watches and then find Sly to give him back his.

"Thanks," Jak told him sleepily as his watch was activated, he looked almost exactly the same as before, green hair, eyebrows and goatee, his ears just looked more human. Ratchet on the other hand was quite the contrast to his normal self. Instead of a goldish looking fur, cat-like ears and a tail, he had shoulder-length hair that started golden at the roots and darkened to a light brown at the tips, human ears, no tail and a very nice tan.

"Just be careful not to bump one of your hidden appendages into someone," Andrew laughed, by this time it was six in the morning, he'd spent most of the time trying to find Sly first since he'd be the most difficult, it seemed he'd spent the night outside the temple, but he claimed nobody had seen him.

"Oh and by the way Ratchet," Andrew remembered, "if someone touches your 'skin' they'll feel fur, be careful".

"I'll try and remember that, thanks" Ratchet gave a thumbs up sign before pulling on a long-sleeve shirt.

So he got everybody up, Molly made a quick list of what everybody should have and Masters Cooper, Bailo and McKnight offered to help pack it all. Even with the extra help, they didn't end up leaving for King's Cross, happy that nothing was forgotten, until half-past ten. First Ginny had forgotten a diary, then Fred forgot something and finally Mel had forgotten her wand of all things, she was quite embarrassed about that.

To top it off, there was only one shuttle car and it couldn't fit them all in one trip, so they had to walk to the station at a rather brisk pace.

When they got there the Masters shot across the road to levitate trolleys back to the trunks, at that point, Jarod and Dela gave brief hugs to their Padawans and left for a council meeting.

By the time they got to platform nine, it took three trips by lift, it was five to eleven. Percy went first, followed by his father, Fred and George went next, then Mrs Weasley said that she'd go with Ginny and for the rest to follow.

Harry went to go next at a fast walk, but was stopped with a lurch by solid wall; causing Hedwig's cage to topple but Mel caught her with the Force.

"What the …" Harry started; Andrew walked up next to him and pushed with his hand.

"Maybe the gateway is meant to seal itself just before the train leaves?" Mel suggested as Harry's watch bleeped to announce the hour.

"We've missed it," Ron moaned.

Andrew snapped his fingers "Got an idea, bring everything to the main entrance, I'll meet you there," and without another word he ran to the edge of platform nine and leapt across to platform eight, running towards the entrance.

The others just shrugged, Harry and Ron went to the entrance while Mel waited with her trolley and Andrew's too, then Harry went back to help her.

When they were all there, Andrew was waiting with a shuttle car, he helped get everything into the car, which was a slight struggle. Three trunks managed to fit into the boot and one had to sit on its side with Harry holding it there, he and Ron were in the back, with all the pets on their laps, with Andrew and Mel in the front seats.

"Everybody strapped in?" Andrew asked, everyone nodded or said they were and Andrew pulled out of the station, picking up speed quickly and going airborne.

Now everyone was comfortable, the trunks were placed tidily in a corner, Harry and Ron were in more spacious chairs and Mel was now in the co-pilot seat.

"So when does this thing have to be back?" Mel asked.

"Uhhh, I might have 'forgotten' to sign it out," Andrew answered.

"You stole it!" Harry exclaimed.

"No!" Andrew yelled defensively "I just … borrowed it without permission," he added lamely.

"I have a bad feeling about this," Mel grumbled "your Master is going to _kill_ you!"

"Guys, is that the train?" Ron asked, getting up and pointing out of the front window.

Andrew looked and veered towards it, it was indeed the Hogwarts Express. He sped towards the engine and kept pace with the driver, who looked extremely surprised to see anything Muggle chasing his train. "Right, Mel, I need you to write him a message,"

"What exactly?" she asked.

"'Three students missed the train and need to come aboard', or words to that effect," Andrew told her.

Mel wrote the message, opened her window and levitated the message across; the driver grabbed it from the air, read it and nodded to her, so Andrew repositioned the shuttle over the engine room. By now he and Mel could sense that they'd caught the attention of the passengers.

It took a short while but soon Mel was ready to get herself, Harry and Ron down to the train by use of a rope and the shuttle's floor hatch, which was now open and the full volume of the train could be heard, so everyone had to yell.

"You feel okay with doing this?" Mel asked Harry, who shook his head. "What about you?" Ron shook his head more vigorously. "Then you go first Harry, I'll use the Force to steady you, okay?"

Harry nodded and took the rope, feeling something holding his shoulders he began his descent, in under a minute he was with the train driver.

Just as Ron was fully out of the shuttle Andrew spoke "Umm, Mel?" he sounded a little urgent.

"What?" she said, looking up, seeing the large hillside closing in fast, her concentration broke and she dropped Ron, who landed hard on his backside, his wand was in his back pocket and he yelped in shock and pain as he felt it snap.

Andrew had to pull up fast, causing Mel to fall out of the hatch, she screamed for a moment, causing Harry, Ron, the Driver and his Engineer to cry out in alarm. Thankfully this wasn't the first time she'd fallen out of a moving vehicle, she rolled over in mid-air, landed on her feet, cat-like, on one of the carriages and allowed the wind to push her onto her back, flattening herself as much as she could before the train went through the tunnel.

"Oh blimey," Ron whimpered, "she's dead" he cried as they came out of the tunnel.

Just then Mel dropped into the driver's cabin, dusting off her hands "Well that was fun," it didn't take a genius to notice the sarcasm.

"What about our trunks?" Harry asked as Ron moaned about his broken wand, one half of which was dangling by its core.

"Andrew's going to attach parachutes to them and drop them on the grounds," Mel answered and the conductor led them to the compartments.

On-board the shuttle Andrew was levelling out on the other side of the hill.

"Whew that was close," Andrew said to himself as he narrowly avoided becoming a scorch mark on a hillside. "Mel are you …?" Andrew turned in his seat to check on her and saw she wasn't there, fearing the worst he quickly sought out her presence in the Force and felt she was safely on the train, letting out a loud sigh of relief.

He waited until the Express was in a wide open area before setting the computer to autopilot and following the train, then he started to set up the trunks for the drop.

"Where have you been?" Hermione asked as Harry, Ron and Mel walked into their compartment on the train.

"We missed the train," Ron told them.

"Mum was frantic," Ginny said, Ron groaned.

"So how are you here then?" Hermione asked.

"I'm not happy about that," Mel almost snapped.

"Andrew 'borrowed' a shuttle car and is now flying it … THERE!" Harry shouted pointing out of the window, where Andrew was now retaking the controls of the shuttle and looking all over the controls and displays frantically, like something might be wrong.

In the shuttle something _was_ wrong, there was a klaxon blaring.

"Computer what's the alarm about?!" Andrew shouted over the sound of the blaring klaxon.

" _Engine will overload_!" the computer answered.

Andrew rolled his eyes in annoyance. "How long?" Andrew asked, reducing speed as a precaution.

" _At full speed, one hour!_ "

"And at current speed?" he asked.

" _Two hours_!"

"Would switching to fighter mode give me more time?"

" _Affirmative_!"

"In that case, transfer to fighter mode!" Andrew commanded.

" _Unable to comply! Fighter mode allows for only one occupant, there are too many objects in the shuttle_!"

"DAMMIT!" Andrew yelled, and resolved to remain at his current speed, which turned out to be the train's speed, and even better was the fact that he was level with the compartment that his friends were sitting in.

Over on the train Andrew's friends watched as he asked a few questions and didn't seem to like the final answer, then he noticed them.

Ginny couldn't help but laugh when Andrew gave a sarcastic wave.

"It's not funny Ginny, he's going to be in so much trouble for this one," Mel said, glaring at Andrew, who put on puppy dog eyes and mouthed 'forgive me', Mel scowled a little more, then her face softened and she mouthed 'what's it worth?', Andrew mouthed 'strawberry ice cream?' and she nodded. "Okay, he's forgiven, by me at least," and the compartment collapsed into giggles while she sat down.

"Hey you guys seen … where'd you come from?" Fred asked of Harry and Ron as he came charging in with George and Lee Jordan, Mel was by the door and he'd walked right past her.

"We missed the train and Andrew got us here," Mel explained, making Fred jump, while pointing over Fred's shoulder at the shuttle.

"Well that explains why it's there," George stated, he expanded the compartment so everyone could sit easily and they spent a while talking, but everyone kept looking anxiously over at Andrew in the shuttle, he seemed to be extremely focused on something that was very important, looking at the same display almost feverishly.

"Anyone got any ideas what's wrong?" Lee asked as soon as he guessed that something was in fact wrong.

"If I were to guess ..." Mel started but all heads snapped to the shuttle as everyone heard an explosion, several of the windows on the train shattered from the concussive wave that the explosion created. The shuttle was wavering in the air as sparks spewed out of the back.

Sparks were flying inside the shuttle too as Andrew was nearly tossed from his seat as the ship was shaken by the explosion.

"SITH!" Andrew bellowed, trying to hold the craft steady.

" _This is Professor McGonagall contacting Andrew Payne, can you hear me_?" said the radio.

"This is 'Mobius'," Andrew answered with his pilot call sign. "I'm a little busy at the moment but go ahead," he added with a grunt. McGonagall could clearly hear in his voice that he was struggling for control.

" _I have been requested to inform you that the shuttle you stole was booked in for repairs and may be experiencing problems_ ," McGonagall stated.

"I never would've guessed!" Andrew retorted sarcastically as the craft shook with another explosion.

" _Are you with the Hogwarts Express_?" McGonagall asked, letting the sarcasm slide this time.

"Yes Professor, how long until we arrive?" he asked.

" _Five minutes_ ," was the answer.

"I think I can hold her in the air that long, see you when I arrive," Andrew said. "Mobius, out!".

By now everyone was in their robes and staring at the shuttle as it wavered in the air.

"Any ideas what the problem is?" Lee asked, loudly as the shuttle started to lag behind the train.

"Isn't it obvious?" Hermione answered, worriedly, repairing the windows with her wand. "The engines exploded!"

Five minutes later they got off the train, Ginny and Mel went straight to Hagrid while the others moved with the crowd, keeping their eyes skyward as the shuttle roared overhead, smoke billowing from the rear.

It was taking every trick Andrew knew, just to keep his ship in the air, the Para drop was set and once Andrew had crossed the lake, he set it off and four trunks, two owl cages, Ron's rat and Mel's cat, Midnight, fell from the hatch one after another to land gracefully on the grass.

"Computer, switch to fighter mode!" Andrew commanded.

" _Unable to comply, transformer is offline!_ " the computer answered, growing slower with each syllable as it died out.

"Oh crud," Andrew muttered as he bolted off of his seat and took cover behind it, holding on for dear life as the shuttle's engines gave one last cough and completely died.

The craft dipped and the nose caught on the ground, causing the whole thing to flip through the air, when it again smashed into the earth it rolled itself to a stop, hitting a tree when it finished scraping to a halt.

Dislodging himself from the pilot's seat, Andrew stood up, summoned his lightsaber to his hand, it had gone flying during the crash, checked his wand while reattaching his weapon to his belt, thankfully it was fine in his inside pocket, and tried to exit through the door, but it was jammed.

"Computer, pop the emergency hatch," Andrew said, wiping blood out of his eye, it seemed that a flying piece of metal had cut his eyebrow. The computer never answered, so Andrew guessed that it was completely dead, so he walked to where the pilot's seat was so that he could open the emergency hatch, but for some reason the shuttle shook.

"Oh please don't let me be up a tree" Andrew thought aloud as he looked out a window, no, he was on the ground.

He popped the hatch and started to get out; he saw three of the professors and couldn't help but start to laugh, as he normally did whenever he had a severe accident and barely got scratched.

"I'M ALIVE!" he yelled, arms spread wide, he started laughing again, but had the wind knocked out of him as a branch, of all things, punched him and sent him flying.

"What the hell?" he gasped as he hit the floor; he drew his lightsaber, just in time to cut another branch before it impaled his head.

"Payne, get away from that tree!" Snape ordered.

"Oh of course sir, just as soon as it stops trying to KILL ME!" Andrew said as sarcastically as he could.

"Immobulus!" McGonagall cried, pointing her wand at the tree, but not before a branch stabbed Andrew's leg and embedded itself in the ground.

Andrew screamed in pain, sliced the branch off and started pulling himself towards the teachers; Snape and Professor Sinistra pulled him to his feet and dragged him get away before the tree started to move again.

"Welcome back Andrew," Sinistra said coolly.

"Evening Professors, mission accomplished," he wheezed, "who ever heard of a tree trying to become The Undertaker?"

"That," said Professor McGonagall as she pointed to the, now mobile again, tree, "is a very old Whomping Willow tree, and you're very lucky not to have been killed!"

"Sorry," Andrew wheezed again coughing up a little blood this time.

"Get him to the Hospital wing!" McGonagall ordered.

"I'm going to miss the sorting, aren't I?" Andrew stated resignedly.

"Most likely, but once you've been seen to, you can join the feast," Snape and Sinistra started taking him away. "Oh and Payne," they stopped and Andrew looked at his head of house. "Well done on getting yourself and your friends to school, but for causing such a spectacle I will have to give you a detention," she said in a disappointed voice, Andrew nodded.

"I expected as much, from the moment you called me on the radio." he sighed, before Snape and Sinistra started moving towards the school again.

Once there, Snape left, but Sinistra stayed, as well as Jarod, who explained he'd arrived by Floo Powder, and didn't relish going back by the same method.

"Well … you could always stay here the night and go back on the Express when the staff head back in the morning … it's you choice entirely Jarod," Sinistra offered hesitantly.

Jarod smiled "Thank you Aurora, I'd like that. Andrew, I would advise that you write to explain what you did and apologize to Molly for making her worry about the four of you, she said she was tempted to write her son a Howler, not that I know what one of those is, but I convinced her not too," he said.

Sinistra looked up at the word 'Howler'. "A Howler is a letter which either shouts its contents for everyone to hear and can be quite embarrassing. If you ignore it, it explodes … and it shouts even louder," she said with a giggle. "I got one once, while I was here, Professor Dumbledore sent a letter to my father when I went bungee jumping off the Astronomy Tower, he sent me a Howler, yelling about how upset he was over my actions and then asked if I enjoyed myself," by now Andrew was laughing painfully, due to his ribs.

Once Andrew was fixed up, Aurora and Jarod accompanied him out of the hospital, about half way down to the start of term feast, Andrew noticed something and grinned.

"Could you two go ahead?" Andrew asked, Sinistra gave him a suspicious look. "I'll catch up, promise."

They walked on ahead and Andrew ran to where Peeves was attempting to do the Mambo with a suit of armour.

"Evening Peeves," Andrew greeted, Peeves stopped what he was doing and just looked at Andrew, worriedly "I have a favour to ask of you.."

Less than two minutes later Andrew caught up to the adults and they continued to the Great Hall, where Andrew immediately noticed Ginny and Mel sitting next to each other, at the Gryffindor table and made a beeline to give them both a hug.

"Yay, you're both in Gryffindor," he exclaimed happily.

"I was worried you were dead," Ginny cried, returning his hug.

"Honestly Andrew, you only woke up yesterday and now you try to kill yourself," Mel berated.

"It wasn't my fault, how was I supposed to know that car was in for repairs … and now most likely needs to be written off," Andrew countered.

"You're right there, that tree's practically destroyed your car, the only thing left is one of the doors," Hermione said as Dumbledore stood.

"Today, as many of you noticed, there was an incident involving a very old tree on our grounds, this has reminded me that I have neglected to inform many of you, that the school grounds are home to a Whomping Willow, for those of you who are concerned, the tree was relatively unharmed, it only lost two half-branches," Dumbledore paused while a few sighs of relief were aired around the hall.

"For those of you who don't know, a Whomping Willow is a tree that is enchanted to defend itself from danger, unfortunately, it perceives anything which ventures into range of its branches as dangerous." Dumbledore continued.

"Therefore I ask of you, to keep yourselves safe, and steer clear of that tree, those who do not will receive detention, those who endanger themselves repeatedly, will have to be suspended for their own safety." Dumbledore then went on to include that there was a list of banned items on the door to Filch's office, for second years and older, the forbidden corridor had been reopened and that the forbidden forest was … well forbidden to all students.

"Now that I have bored you all with pointless details, please enjoy the feast," and food appeared on the tables.

While they were eating a prefect, Percy no less, came by and informed them of the new password, Wattlebird, they got into wondering how a late student would get into their respective house common room, when Snowfire landed on Andrew's shoulder and dropped a blank sheet of parchment and a quill in his lap.

Andrew glanced up to the teacher's table, seeing his Master giving him a very pointed look. Taking the hint, Andrew wrote his apology for 'kidnapping' Harry, Ron and Mel, explaining why he had, once he was done he sent the letter off with Snowfire, after giving him a piece of chicken.

"So anyway," Ginny said, speaking for the first time since hugging Andrew. "Why did you crash into that tree?"

"Well you might have noticed that the engine … kinda … blew out on me," Andrew said, trying to figure out some way of toning it down and failing. "After that I had to do everything I could think of to keep her in the air as long as I did," Andrew explained, "it took every piloting trick I knew just to not crash into the lake, I'm beginning to wish I had … it'd have been a smoother landing."

"Yeah, but you might have drowned," Mel pointed out.

"That plus the fact of the giant squid, he'd have pulled you under," Ron added, causing Mel to gape at him.

"Oh yeah, I didn't think about that," Andrew thought aloud.

"Something else we didn't think about that McGonagall pointed out," Harry said, causing Andrew to come out of his thoughts and look at him. "We should have sent an owl to say we missed the train," Andrew slapped a hand to his forehead, remembering that he had an owl.

Harry couldn't help but laugh "I had the same exact reaction," he said, causing their friends to chuckle with him and get on with eating their food.

Midway through the feast, one of the windows broke as a small, gold coloured ball with silver trimmings soared through it and landed on the Slytherin table, right in front of McCarthy, Crabbe and Goyle on one side of the table, and Draco and Jax on the other. Andrew couldn't help but smirk as the sound of church music and a choir singing 'hallelujah' came from the ball shortly before it exploded, sending confetti all over everyone for ten meters and plastering gag glasses, complete with rubber nose, fluffy eyebrows and moustache on their faces.

"What the heck?" Mel asked over the laughter of everyone in the hall, a few poor Hufflepuff students were hit and they managed to find it funny.

Andrew just grinned evilly, "You know something," Hermione said.

"Well ... I may or may not have convinced Peeves to pull a pin and hurl one of my latest inventions aimlessly through the window," Andrew answered innocently, "though I have to congratulate him, perfect shot!" he added, blowing his 'innocence'.

At the mention of an invention, Fred and George looked across the table, their faces clearly asking for a look, Andrew pulled another ball, this one with a cross sticking out of the top, out from his Jedi robes, he hadn't had a chance to change into his school ones yet, and rolled it across the table.

"What's it called?" asked Ron, staring at it.

"I called it a Holy Hand Grenade, named it after something I saw on Monty Python," Andrew answered; while looking at Ron, he summoned the pin into his hand.

George looked at the grenade in his hand, looked at Andrew and said "You didn't!" as another chorus of 'hallelujah' rang out and everyone within ten meters of George got hit as well, unfortunately for Mel, diving under the table didn't help, as she found out when she sat back up and felt her face, not overly happy that her face was covered by a rubber nose.

"I did!" Andrew grinned through his moustache.

"How long will this last?" asked Ginny over the laughter.

"Twenty four hours," Andrew laughed through his own moustache.

At that point Dumbledore stood up. "Might I ask who is responsible for this?" nobody answered, mainly because no one heard him over their own laughter.

So Dumbledore waited patiently and once things had quieted down a bit Dumbledore asked again, but this time Andrew discreetly took out another grenade and rolled it towards the doors to the hall. Using the Force to move it around the Hall so nobody was certain where it came from exactly, until eventually it 'hopped' the steps to the teacher's table. This one had a note attached, Dumbledore picked it up from the table and read the note aloud.

"Ladies and gentlemen, I present the Holy Hand Grenade, my greatest thanks to Peeves for his assistance in its premier, whoever was hit, do not worry, those faces will be gone by this time tomorrow," the note said, Andrew was smart enough to not sign it and now everyone, except Andrew, Harry, Ron, Hermione, Ginny, Mel and the twins, was on edge as to whether or not they'd be hit next.

After everyone had finished eating and been told that their time tables would be handed out at breakfast the next day, everyone got up to go to bed.

Before getting up, Andrew pulled the pin to the grenade which Dumbledore had picked up and placed on the teacher's table in front of himself; this one was designed to have a blast radius of twenty meters.

Everyone turned to the grenade as it sang out and fell down laughing at what was on the teacher's faces.

"Very amusing, now off to bed everyone," Dumbledore laughed.

Everything in Andrew's body had been fixed, but now the pain, in his leg particularly, had begun to return, so he had to limp most of the way up the stairs.

"Wattlebird," Hermione said as they got to the Fat Lady, she, Harry and Ron helped Andrew through the portrait hole, Ginny and Mel went with a prefect to be shown the way to the common room.

As soon as they were through their fellow Gryffindors came up to congratulate him on his grand entrance, but they were stopped by an invisible barrier, Andrew's hand hovering in their general direction.

"If you think that my _only_ reason for flying to school was for the glory then you're wrong, I missed the train and didn't think about sending an owl," he explained calmly through gritted teeth. "Now I'm paying for my stupidity with pain and if you don't mind, I'd like to go sleep it off, if you'll excuse me," Andrew finished and made his way through them to collapse on a chair in pain.

Seeing that they weren't going to get much fun or partying from Andrew that night, they went to bed and Harry and Ron helped Andrew up the staircase to bed.


	5. New Teacher, Insults, Voices and a Party

Chapter 5 – New Teacher, Insults, Voices and a Party

When they all awoke next morning, Andrew was thankful to find he wasn't in pain any more, so he made his way down to breakfast with Harry and Ron, meeting Hermione in the common room, she was slightly worried about Mel not being anywhere to be found when the girls woke up.

"Don't worry about that, she's an early riser, bound to be at breakfast already," Andrew explained, adding "she's slightly weird in that regard, she's normally up at about five or six in the morning, without any help from anyone else, but like me she's not a morning person."

"Weird," Ron agreed.

"I'd bet that she took a few laps around the lake before breakfast, I prefer my run in the afternoon, that way I can sleep in," Andrew explained on their way down the moving staircases.

They did indeed meet Mel at the Gryffindor table, talking to Ginny.

"Morning!" Andrew called from right next to Mel's ear, making her jump from his volume and causing him to laugh.

Breakfast was fairly uneventful, McGonagall handed out timetables and Harry, Ron, Andrew, Hermione and Mel headed off to Herbology which they had with the Hufflepuffs.

"( _We'll work more on telepathy while you're in Transfiguration Ginny_ ,) Mel told her younger friend, who tried not to nod physically and ran off to her lesson.

When the five of them got to the greenhouse Professor Sprout wasn't there, but they soon saw both her and Gilderoy Lockhart coming back from the tree, Andrew looked very apologetic as he saw the Whomping Willow tree with some of its branches in slings.

"Oh, hello there!" Lockhart called when he saw the assembled students. "Just been showing Professor Sprout here how to treat a damaged Whomping Willow properly," he said smugly.

At this, Andrew couldn't help rolling his eyes and Professor Sprout tried not to scowl. Mel started to tune him out as he said something about meeting other trees like that on his travels.

"Greenhouse Three today chaps," Sprout almost barked, interrupting Lockhart.

As they were about to go inside Lockhart took a hold of Harry's arm. "Harry, been wanting a word, don't mind if he's a few minutes late Professor?" he asked, but before she could answer Andrew spoke up.

"I mind," he snapped and then he slowly and subtly drifted his hand towards Lockhart and across "you have a class to teach," which caused him to leave in a slight daze as Jax Starr stopped walking past, he was heading to his first class after a morning run.

"Nicely done Payne," he said, almost politely.

"Um thanks, why the new attitude?" Andrew asked.

"The Master's orders," he said a little sulkily, Andrew almost smiled.

"Well I'll be sure to thank your Master when I next see her," Andrew chuckled, turning to go into class.

"No you idiot, not _my_ Master, _The_ Master!" Jax snapped.

"Ooooh," Andrew and Mel chorused as he sped off and Professor Sprout called them into class.

"We'll be re-potting Mandrakes today," Sprout explained, she asked what the properties were, to everyone's surprise Mel put her hand up, as did Hermione, to nobody's surprise.

Mel was pointed to and she spoke clearly that Mandrake was used to return petrified people to their original state.

"So who's The Master?" Ron whispered to Andrew.

"( _I'll explain later,_ )" Andrew answered telepathically.

"Correct, ten points to Gryffindor," Sprout said "Now the Mandrake forms an essential part of most antidotes however it is also dangerous, can anyone tell me why?"

Mel deliberately kept her hand down this time and Hermione got to answer that the cry of the mandrake was fatal to anyone who hears it.

"Yes, ten more points to Gryffindor," Sprout announced.

She stated that the Mandrakes they had were quite young, at which point Andrew noticed the pots with quivering leaves poking out of the soil within them. She also drew her students' attention to the table covered in earmuffs, telling everyone to get a pair on.

There was a scramble to pick a pair that weren't pink and fluffy, but Andrew just stood at the back and cheated a little by using the Force.

With their earmuffs on, Professor Sprout showed them what to do and gave the signal to take their earmuffs off.

"Now as our Mandrakes are just seedlings their cries won't kill yet, but they will knock you out for several hours" she explained, "and as I'm sure none of you want to miss your first day back," she glared around, almost daring someone to say otherwise, "make sure your earmuffs are securely in place".

"Six to a tray, compost in the bags over there and be careful of the Venomous Tentacular, it's teething," she ordered and Andrew groaned as she slapped a dark red spiky plant.

"Professor is there ever a time when it _isn't_ teething?" he complained.

She just laughed back and told her class to get on with their work.

"Justin Finch-Fletchley," said the sixth person at the table, bringing Andrew's attention back to Harry, Ron, Hermione and Mel as the curly-haired Hufflepuff shook his hand and explained how he knew everyone except Mel.

It became quickly obvious that he was a talker, that or he liked hearing his own voice, so, feigning a signal from Professor Sprout, they put their earmuffs on to drown him out.

While they couldn't talk verbally, Andrew took the chance to teach his friends a little bit about telepathy.

"( _You wanted to know about The Master, what do you know about Jedi and Sith ranks?_ )" Andrew asked "( _Give the others a chance Hermione,_ )"

"( _I don't know much either thank you,_ )" she replied a little haughtily.

"( _Nothing,_ )" Harry and Ron both answered, guessing the idea was to think about what they wanted to say.

"( _Well I'll start with Jedi, you could say there are four, but most don't count 'Youngling' as a rank,_ )" Andrew started. "(Y _ou see a child joins the Jedi Order, only after a Master has explained everything to their parents and have been given permission to take the child and train them. With me so far?_ )"

Harry and Ron nodded physically, causing Justin to give them a funny look, but Hermione made a 'mhmm' sound in her mind and Andrew continued.

"( _Well from the moment they join until the earliest of age six, each child is 'schooled' in the Jedi arts, much as we are now in magic, in classes. After that, Jedi Younglings await an available Master to take them as their Padawan learner, where they start being taught more advanced skills on a one to one basis, sometimes though a Youngling will have to wait and continue to learn until age eight or nine,_ )" by now they'd all gotten their plants out of their first pot.

"( _Padawan training can last a few short years, or a couple of decades, that depends on how quickly the student learns and the Jedi council. Jedi law dictates that nobody can be classed as a legal adult until they have passed their trials, the youngest person in our history to become an adult was just thirteen,_ )" Ron and Harry both made sounds of awe at this.

"( _Once a Jedi passes his or her trials, they become a Knight and start to teach themselves, preparing for the time when they have to start teaching Younglings and eventually, if they're good enough, their own Padawan. And finally you have Masters who train Padawans. Only a Master can serve on a national Council, only the ones serving on a Council can vote for their own chairman, each chairman or woman serves on the High Council and they vote in a new Grandmaster whenever one dies or gets killed._ )" he finished.

"( _That sounds rather democratic,_ )" Hermione commented.

"( _It is,_ )" Andrew answered.

"( _So, what about the Sith?_ )" Harry asked.

"( _And what does this have to do with this Master, Starr mentioned,_ )" Ron added.

"( _I'm getting there, because the Sith you see will only take three kinds of children. First, ones who have been abandoned by parents who feared their child's growing powers, because they can be twisted and turned to the Dark side through sheer resentment. Second, children who have used the Force to kill, because they make natural assassins, or third, the children they give birth to. If they are Force sensitive they are trained, if not, they're killed._ )" Andrew started to explain, but he was interrupted by Ron.

"( _That's just sick,_ )" he spat mentally.

Andrew continued, knowing that if he stopped now he'd not be able to finish explaining everything.

"( _As soon as a child in the Sith ranks can stand and hold a lightsaber, they gain the rank of Apprentice, there's always more Lords than children since they're so picky, and they begin their brutal training. If they live long enough to be called worthy of taking the Sith trials_ and _they survive the trials too, they become a Sith Warrior, which is pretty much the same as a Jedi Knight in terms of privileges and expectations,_ )" now they were each fighting their Mandrake into the new pots, Andrew and Mel were sending calming waves to theirs through the Force.

"( _Often times a Sith Warrior will be given the rank of Lord after completing a high profile contract and they can then start training their own Apprentice,_ )" Ron then interrupted again.

"( _So that woman who train's Starr, she's not a Master like she said but just a Lord?_ )" He asked.

"( _Yes, many Sith Lords introduce themselves as 'Master' since their Apprentice calls them that, and technically if they are teaching they are a Master in comparison to their student. But here's where it can get confusing, there is a way for a Lord to become an Apprentice again. Each Lord gets given the opportunity to go on a mission with the head of the Sith Order, otherwise known as The Master, if they impressed him enough then they will become The Master's Apprentice, they will go through the most vigorous training of their lives, and if they live through all of that, The Master will challenge them to single combat._ )" Andrew and Mel had now finished their task and were watching everyone else struggle; Mel though was helping Ginny out with her telepathy and Transfiguration class.

"( _If they win the challenge, the Sith Order has a new Master, if not, then they were never worthy of being The Apprentice and they are dead._ )" He finished, starting to feel a little ill now.

"( _That's totally barbaric!_ ") Hermione said, severely disliking the idea of the Sith now.

By now everyone had finished, and were quite muddy, so Professor Sprout allowed them to leave early and go clean up.

After that it was off to Transfiguration, where they were just in time to see Ginny's class coming out.

"( _Thanks for the help Mel; I got 20 points for Gryffindor!_ )" She shouted mentally, causing Harry, Ron, Hermione, Mel and Andrew to flinch.

"( _No need to shout when we're this close,_ )" Andrew replied.

Transfiguration didn't go too well for Harry and Ron. Andrew and Mel found turning their beetles into buttons easy by making their beetles sit … literally ... while they cast their spells, Hermione was just good at everything and between the three of them they made enough buttons to make several coats.

Harry's beetle however wouldn't stay still long enough for Harry to get it and as for Ron ... well due to Ron's wand being broken and badly repaired with spellotape, it kept sending off sparks randomly and whenever he tried to transfigure his beetle his wand tried to kill everyone near him with a thick, foul smelling smoke.

At the end of the lesson, Harry was sighing in relief at the sound of the lunch bell and Ron was snarling at his wand as he repeatedly hit it on his desk, causing it to let off several loud bangs.

"Couldn't you just write home for a new one?" Mel asked innocently.

"You saw what was happening last week in Diagon Alley," Ron complained, "not only can't my parents afford a new wand for me, but I'd have to tell them why I need one, I'd get a howler for sure."

Harry and Mel gave him strange looks at the word 'howler' and Hermione explained what one was, causing them both to go slightly pale at the thought of getting one themselves.

While at lunch Ron's mood had a chance to improve a little, when Harry asked what they had that afternoon.

"Defence Against the Dark Arts," Hermione answered automatically with her timetable out.

"Why," Ron demanded, snatching her timetable out of her hands, "have you circled all Lockhart's lessons with little hearts?"

Hearing that, Andrew and Mel burst out laughing, which caused Ron to smile and forget his bad Transfiguration lesson.

While they were eating, Harry noticed Jax at the Slytherin table "Which do you think he was?" He wondered aloud.

Andrew followed his gaze. "I'm not sure, I'd like to hope it wasn't option two, a murderous child,"

After they finished their food, they all went to the courtyard, Hermione stuck her nose into one of her Lockhart books, Harry and Ron talked about Quidditch and Mel asked several questions about the sport.

Andrew on the other hand got to thinking about the car he destroyed and how he would've liked to replace it somehow, but at the same time he thought of how much easier things could be if he simply built his own.

With the latter thought strongest in his mind, Andrew sat down and started drawing on a piece of parchment. He was so immersed in what he was doing that he didn't notice a first year Gryffindor introduce himself to Harry as Collin Creevey and ask for a picture of Harry too.

Mel got rather annoyed when Malfoy showed up and started making a spectacle about Harry giving out signed photos and even more annoyed when Lockhart showed up and only make things worse.

After having drawn out an entire car, labelling specific points and working out some complicated equations, Andrew's attention was grabbed by Mel when she pulled the parchment back.

"You're gonna be late," she said, examining the parchment, "new project?"

"Possibly, not sure yet," Andrew answered as she passed him back his unfinished design and he put it away.

They raced to class and tied, slipping in just before Lockhart tried to close the door. The lesson wasn't exactly what anyone with any sense might call ... productive.

First Lockhart 'introduced' himself, but it sounded more like bragging, then he handed out a test to see how well they'd read his books, Andrew and Hermione got full marks, gaining ten points to Gryffindor each, but in Andrew's case that was down to his memory, what was annoying about it was how conceited he clearly was, just from the questions on the test.

"And so, to business," Lockhart announced, this was the beginning of the worst part of the lesson, he showed the class a cage of pixies and then announced, "Right then, let's see what you make of them!"

He then opened the cage and all hell broke loose, they moved like rockets and thanks to arms and legs they caused twice as much damage. Within seconds poor Neville was picked up by his ears and left hanging from the ceiling, the window had been broken as some of the pixies made a bid for freedom; some school bags had been thrown out of the window, as well as Lockhart's wand.

In fact by the time the bell had gone everyone was only too glad to run for it, even Neville, who by some chance of fate had been unharmed when the candelabra he was hanging from fell from the ceiling.

Unfortunately for them though, Harry, Ron, Hermione, Mel and Andrew were left to clear the pixies up, as Lockhart ran out the door and shut it behind him, this was becoming more and more frustrating by the second.

Eventually Andrew looked at Hermione and mentally told her to be ready with a freezing charm, then he poured out his frustration in the form of Force Lightning, it was just one quick burst which lit up the whole room, any pixie that wasn't shocked into unconsciousness was hit by Hermione with her charm and quickly stuffed in the cage.

"Well that was fun," Mel said sarcastically.

"Tell me about it, he doesn't have a clue what he's doing," snapped Andrew, glaring at the door Lockhart had run away through.

"Nonsense," Said Hermione "you've read his books, look at all those amazing things he's done,"

"That's just it Hermione, they're too amazing to be true, and if he _had_ done even half of them, don't you think a few pixies would've been easy for him?" Mel reasoned, but she wasn't going to listen, so to avoid an argument they just locked the cage, grabbed their books and went to dinner.

The rest of the week was quite comical, for Andrew at least, whenever Harry saw Lockhart coming down the corridor, he'd quickly dive into hiding. The funny part was that every time this happened Lockhart would happily greet Andrew, Ron, Hermione and Mel, but never seemed to realise that Harry wasn't there.

"You would think he'd realise that us lot are inseparable, right?" Mel asked about half way through the week, Andrew wanted to say something about his lack of intelligence, but didn't want to start an argument with Hermione, so he didn't answer.

Colin was starting to become a bit of a hindrance as well, Andrew and Mel had tried letting him take the hint from Harry that he wanted to be left alone. After two days of that not working, the two Jedi took him to one side and tried to explain that Harry didn't really like being a celebrity, regardless of what anyone might have told him.

So when that didn't work they started taking turns, practising Jedi Mind Tricks on him, just to remind him that he had classes to get to.

"This can't last forever, for one thing it's wrong," Andrew pointed out after the fifteenth time of sending Colin away.

"For another if this keeps up he'll probably become impervious to Mind Tricks," sighed Mel.

Unfortunately for Andrew, Hedwig was in a bit of a bad mood with him, she hadn't landed too comfortably when she was dropped out of the shuttle's hatch and whenever she saw him she either glared at him or nipped nastily at his fingers.

What was worse was, whenever she did this; Snowfire would look at him as if to say 'Sorry bud, my girlfriend's mad at you,' before glaring as well.

Ron was having a hard time too, mainly thanks to his wand.

"I'm really sorry about that," Mel said for about the twelfth time that week.

"It's not your fault, and it's not yours either Andrew," Ron said as Andrew was about to apologise too, "I'd rather have a broken wand than two broken friends,"

Andrew refrained from explaining that if he _had_ crashed then he and Mel would have been more than just broken, they'd have been crushed and burned to cinders, lucky to be cleared up with a dustpan and brush.

But no matter, they went to bed on Friday night, knowing that they didn't have to worry about Ron's wand for the whole weekend, they were also going to go and visit Hagrid in the morning.

But Harry got woken up much earlier than they had planned on, by Oliver Wood.

"Quidditch practise," he'd said "come on!"

After Harry groggily got dressed and left a note for Ron, he thought about Andrew's skill in flying lessons last year, so he woke the young Jedi up and told him that he'd been summoned for a practise and asked if he'd like to come.

"To what point and purpose, young missy?" Andrew groaned into his pillow.

"Well maybe I can talk Wood into giving you a try-out," Harry explained and Andrew grudgingly got up.

"Five galleons says he tells you that you have a full team already," he complained as he quickly got dressed.

Harry laughed, grabbed his broom and they headed down to the common room.

Once their they heard Colin coming down the stairs with his camera, saying he'd heard someone saying his name, Andrew didn't even bother with a mind trick.

"It's too early in the morning Colin, we're cold, tired and aren't going to get a chance to eat," he snapped, making poor Colin jump and quickly realise that Andrew wasn't a morning person. Andrew huffed out a sigh and conceded. "Alright, you can come but leave that _damned_ camera in your room, deal?"

Colin nodded and scampered back up the stairs to put the camera away.

"Was that entirely necessary?" Harry asked.

"Probably not, but I'll apologise when I'm awake," Andrew growled as they left through the portrait hole, going slowly so the kid could catch up.

"So how does this game work?" Colin asked as he caught up and got informed of where they were going and why.

"Well you have seven players on each team," Harry explained, "three Chasers pass the Quaffle to each other and try to score through the hoops and gain ten points, then you have the Keeper,"

"Who defends a goal in Muggle Football, so therefore does the same thing here," Andrew interjected.

"Okay, I got everything so far," Colin said, "what's next?"

"You have two Bludgers which fly around and try to knock players off their brooms, and the two Beaters on each team protect their players from the Bludgers while attempting to whack those balls at the other team," Harry continued.

"Right," Colin said slowly, trying to think of a Muggle sport where there was anything similar but coming up blank.

"And finally you have the Seeker who looks high and low for the Golden Snitch, the game doesn't end until the Snitch is caught, the Seeker who catches it gets his team one hundred and fifty points which normally causes their team to win," Harry finished,

"Unless their team's Chasers are catastrophically bad," Andrew quipped, causing Harry to chuckle tiredly.

"Yes too true," Harry said as they got to the changing room door, Harry pointed out where the spare brooms were kept and went inside.

"You're not on the team?" Colin asked, curious.

"Technically, Harry shouldn't even be on the team yet, but he was permitted to join the team last year when he proved skilful enough and the team needed a Seeker." Andrew answered, examining the brooms.

"So I can't give it a try?" Colin asked, sounding a little dejected.

"Sadly, no, but you're free to have a go next year, to be honest, I think I'm wasting my time. The team's got a full compliment as it is." Andrew sighed as he selected a broom.

"You never know," Colin answered. "Can you think of any sport where a team _doesn't_ need substitutes? Someone could get injured during a game right?"

Andrew paused. "That's a good point, guess we'll wait and see, why don't you head over and grab yourself a seat?" he suggested to the younger boy, pointing to the stands. Colin ran off and Andrew started climbing one of the towering stands, intending to meditate while he waited for the team to finish their pep talk.

When they came out Andrew was in the lotus position, where the teachers normally sat, meditating as the sun rose.

He sensed the team stepping onto the pitch, and smiled slightly when Harry noticed Ron, Hermione and Mel, but wondered where he himself was.

"Oliver," Harry asked.

"What is it Potter," Wood answered.

"Think there's gonna be time to do a try-out after training?"

"Possibly, why who did you have in mind?"

"Andrew, wherever he's gone," Andrew smirked, having been 'listening' in and stood up.

"Who's that?" Katie Bell, one of the Chasers, asked as she pointed up at the top stand.

As the whole team looked upwards, Andrew threw his broom into the air and dived out of the stand, causing Angelina Johnson to scream, and free-fell for twenty feet before summoning his borrowed broom back to his hand and pulling out into a spectacular landing.

"Mention my name and I appear!" he cried.

At this point Hermione had her hands in her mouth, Ron and Colin were cheering and Mel had her hands on her hips, shaking her head and muttering "show off".

"Impressive, alright everyone, change of plans, I wanna see what Payne can do. We might be looking at a substitute player here," Wood announced.

They went with Chaser first, planning to see how Andrew did in all positions, Alicia Spinnet and Angelina Johnson volunteered to play the other two Chasers and Andrew huddled with them to make a quick strategy.

Once on their brooms they shot across the pitch, passing the Quaffle back and forth, not one of them dropping it once and when Andrew got in range he slowed down and allowed the other two to shoot behind the goals, he shot for the right post, but Wood let it go when he saw it was going to miss.

Andrew smirked, Wood did exactly what Andrew wanted him to, the Quaffle soared right into Angelina's waiting hand, she spun in the air and threw it back to Andrew, who volley-kicked it into the left goal, Alicia caught it and threw it back again, Andrew headed it into the middle goal, right passed a stunned Wood where Angelina passed it back again and Andrew punched it through the right goal.

"Wow," said Wood a little dumbly.

"I believe that's known as a hat trick," Andrew smirked.

Next they had Wood come away from the hoops and Andrew tried Keeper, while the Chasers were in their huddle he feverishly read the rule book, muttering to himself as he read until finally he called out "AHA!" and casually tossed the book over his shoulder

"What?" George asked from his broom.

"You'll see," Andrew called back as the Chasers got back on their brooms and started their run.

Angelina took a shot first, aiming for the hoop on Andrew's left, he was hovering in the middle and shot out to catch it easily. Katie Bell went next, feigning to his left but then shooting right, Andrew fell for it but leapt off his broom, masterfully performed a spinning heel kick and sent the Quaffle into the stands, then he grabbed the pole to swing around and back onto his broom.

Alicia took the third shot, feigning left, then right, flying right around the goals and shooting hard for the middle, Andrew saw that coming and it hit him smack in the head.

He blinked a few times. "Ouch that actually hurt," he whined, rubbing his head a little.

Then Angelina made it look like she was going to shoot but passed at the last second to Katie who made a real attempt at goal, only to find Andrew had left his broom again to have his entire body inside the hoop she'd aimed at and it hit him square in the stomach.

"You might want to consider wearing armour in the goal, Payne!" Oliver called, having watched Andrew put his body at risk for two shots in a row.

For their fifth and final attempt they seemed to try the same strategy, except instead of Katie making the shot she passed to Alicia, while Andrew was in the right side goal and off his broom again the Quaffle was going for the middle hoop. Andrew's hand shot out and he caught the ball with the Force.

"T-th-that's cheating!" Angelina shouted in frustration, trying to stomp her foot but hitting air.

Andrew laughed and pointed to the rule book on the ground. "Rules don't say anything against it,"

Wood actually laughed too. "Only because there weren't any known Jedi when the rules were written," he chortled. "Don't go trying that during a game, I guarantee we'll concede a penalty."

Next they tried him out as a Beater, while the three Chasers were flying towards Oliver in his Keeper position. Andrew shot at the Bludger and bashed it, it soared through the air, bounced off Katie's head painfully, and making her roll over in the air, ricocheted off of Alicia's broom handle, causing her to dive, and then knocked the Quaffle out from under Angelina's arm, which Fred caught.

For the last part Andrew asked if he could borrow Harry's Nimbus, Wood released the Snitch, told Andrew to wait for half a minute and then start looking. During the thirty seconds, Andrew never blinked once, always keeping his eyes on it, when he was told to go for it he chased the Snitch down, following it all over the pitch, even though he knew where it was he still had to catch up to it, but he still caught it in less than 3 minutes.

Wood had asked George to write a report on everything that had happened and Mel offered to take it to Professor McGonagall for her decision on Andrew joining the team. That was when Wood ordered his team to start training and the trouble started.

The Slytherin team showed up, which got Wood angry since he'd booked the pitch. "Plenty of room for all of us, Wood," Flint, the Slytherin captain answered.

It seemed that Snape had written a note giving the Slytherin team permission to practise, given that they needed to train their new Seeker, who turned out to be Malfoy.

"Aren't you Lucius Malfoy's son?" asked one of the twins.

"Funny you should mention Draco's father," Flint grinned as the entire Slytherin team held out their brooms; they were all Nimbus Two Thousand and Ones.

At this point Ron and Hermione had joined them to see what was going on and Hermione snapped at Malfoy.

"Well at least nobody on the Gryffindor team had to _buy_ their way in, they've all gotten in on pure talent," she scathed.

Malfoy went from smug to scowl quicker than Roadrunner eats a bowl of birdseed. McCarthy was at his side and snapped at Hermione. "Nobody asked your opinion, you filthy little Mudblood!"

Clearly he'd said something wrong because both the twins dived for him but Flint got in the way, Alicia shrieked something at McCarthy and Ron went for his wand. Even Malfoy briefly looked ready to take a swing at his friend, but he quickly covered it.

"Sie ist viel sauberer als du Schleim Gesicht" Andrew spat, causing all the Slytherins to look thoroughly confused.

"You'll pay for that one McCarthy!" Ron shouted as he pointed his wand and it let out a loud bang, some green light shot out of the end and hit Ron in the stomach, sending him flying backwards.

"Ron! Ron are you OK?" Hermione cried, running over to him, Ron said nothing, just rolled onto his hands and knees and vomited a slug. This caused the Slytherin's to collapse in laughter, some of them leaning on their brooms for support.

Harry and Hermione helped Ron to his feet and Andrew led the way to Hagrid's, as Harry said, it was nearest, as they got there Mel saw them on her way back to the pitch and ran to catch up.

"Practise over?" she asked, then Ron belched up another slug. "I guess it got cancelled."

"Hide," Andrew hissed and dragged them all out of sight as Hagrid's door opened and Lockhart stepped out.

"It's a simple matter if you know what you're doing," said loudly to Hagrid, which made Andrew wonder if Lockhart thought Hagrid was stupid, "if you need help, I'm sure you know where I am."

"( _Yeah, just look for the overdone hair and the big ego,_ )" Andrew thought darkly as he tuned out the rest of what Lockhart had to say.

After the Professor walked away they helped Ron back to Hagrid's door and knocked, Hagrid opened it almost instantly and he looked angry, but his face brightened when he saw who was there.

"Bin wonderin' when you'd come ter see me," he said, slightly gruffly, "come in, come in, I thought you might've been Professor Lockhart comin' back."

As Harry and Hermione helped Ron into a chair, Andrew explained to Hagrid and Mel what was wrong, at which point Hagrid put a very large brass basin in front of Ron, and just in time for a slug to fall into it.

"Better out than in," Hagrid said "there's nothin' we can do but wait till it stops,"

"Why was Ron trying to curse McCarthy in the first place?" Mel asked. After they'd talked about why Lockhart was there and that he was the only person available for the Dark Arts job.

Harry opened his mouth to answer, but didn't really know himself.

"He called Hermione a Mudblood, whatever _that_ is," Andrew added.

"He didn't!" Hagrid growled, looking angry again.

"What does it mean Hagrid? I could only tell it was really rude," Hermione said loudly to be heard over the sound of many slugs hitting the basin.

"It's only the most insultin' thing he could think of," Hagrid almost shouted.

"It means dirty blood, some families, like Malfoy's an' McCarthy's, think they're better because they're pure blood, Mudblood is what they call someone with Muggle parents," Ron explained as he came up from the basin.

"Like us then," Mel said, pointing to herself, Andrew and Hermione.

"Exactly," said Hagrid, "it's stupid though, there's hardly a wizard in the world who's not half-blood or less, and they haven't invented a spell that our 'Ermione can't do,"

At this, Hermione blushed.

"So what was it you said to the Slytherins, Andrew?" Harry asked.

"It was German wasn't it?" Hermione added. "I know it when I hear it, but I haven't started learning it yet."

"Oops, did I slip into German?" Andrew asked, Harry and Hermione nodded while Ron threw up again. "That might explain why they looked so confused," he said thoughtfully.

"What did you say?" Mel asked with an amused grin.

"She's a lot cleaner than you'll ever be, Slime Face," Andrew repeated word for word, causing the others to laugh.

"So he's has no idea you insulted him," Hermione giggled.

"Probably, I doubt his parents took the time to teach him many foreign languages," Mel said, looking darkly out the window as the Slytherin Team headed back up to the castle.

Colin saw her through the window and ran up to Hagrid's door, he only wanted to check that Ron was alright before running off for lunch.

"How come yours did?" Ron asked after another slug attack, which had caused Colin to run away.

"Well as world-wide peace keepers, the Jedi kinda need to know various languages fluently," Andrew explained, "I myself know French, German, Spanish, Latin, Russian, Turkish, Arabian, Japanese and Portuguese."

"Wow," said Hermione breathlessly, "I've been studying since I was eight and I only know French."

"We study from the moment we get a fair grasp of English," Mel explained, looking away from the window.

"By the way 'Arry, what's this I 'ear about you givin' out signed photos?" Hagrid asked, causing Andrew to laugh as Harry tried to unclench his teeth from the treacle tart he'd been eating.

A while later they had returned to the castle, still laughing about Hagrid's comment to Lockhart about Harry being more famous without trying, when McGonagall walked up to them.

"There you are Payne, your detention will be tonight, you're polishing the silver in the Trophy room with Mr Filch, no magic and _no_ using the Force," She said.

"Oh that'll be fun," Andrew said with an air of mock-enthusiasm, "no chance I could maybe have Professor Snape? He'd at least be more cheerful."

McGonagall didn't look impressed. "I think not Mr Payne, you will be with Mr Filch and that's that," she said as she walked off.

"Maybe Professor Sprout will lend me a pair of ear muffs to drown out the sounds of 'if I had my way you'd be hanging from your toes in the dungeon'" Andrew sighed after doing a fairly good impression of Filch.

"I heard that," McGonagall called back, "and you are to be there at eight o'clock sharp!"

At eight o'clock Andrew was at the Trophy room where Filch was waiting with his usual insults, Andrew just got on with it, thinking back to when he once watched The Karate Kid.

"Wax on," he said to himself as he whipped on the polish, "wax off," as he used another cloth to buff the trophy to a high shine.

"What's that you saying!" Filch snapped.

"Just a working phrase," Andrew answered calmly, speaking a little louder as he worked.

He worked for nearly four hours; Filch wanted Andrew to polish one particular special award better than any of the others.

"Right, gerrof with ye," he ordered when Andrew had finished the last one to his satisfaction.

Harry had promised to meet him after his detention, Ron was in the hospital wing now, still bringing up slugs, Mel was helping Ginny with her homework and Harry felt a little guilty for Andrew being in detention in the first place.

It was at half-past eleven when Andrew heard Harry project something from his mind unintentionally. It was a voice he was hearing and it sent a chill up his spine.

"Did ... did you hear that too?" Harry asked, clearly worried he might have been losing his mind a little.

"I heard you hearing it ... if that makes sense," Andrew answered, Harry shrugged and they started jogging to their common room.

They got back to a near-empty surrounding and decided to go to bed; they'd explain what happened to their friends the next day.

Soon they were into October and with winter, came a mass of cold patients for Madam Pomfrey, which kept her fairly busy.

When Ginny sat down at the Gryffindor table with smoke coming out from under her hair, a clear sign of Pepperup potion, she told the second years about passing Snape on her way out of the Hospital Wing, he too had come down with a cold; Andrew couldn't help the next words out of his mouth.

"Imagine if he sneezed, with a nose like that there'd be no survivors," he mused as his fellow Gryffindors fell off their seats in fits of laughter.

McGonagall, having read the report of Andrew's try-out had insisted on watching him in a training session with the whole team and approved Wood's request of having him as a backup ... anything.

"I guess this is yours," Andrew sighed as he dropped five Galleons into Harry's hand.

The slight drawback was Wood's enthusiasm in training in all weathers, not only was October freezing, but it seemed the heavens had chosen to send them a monsoon.

"I'm singing in the rain, just singing in the rain!" Andrew bellowed in a sing-song voice from his broomstick, he couldn't decide between showing Malfoy that money didn't outweigh skill, or that someone didn't have to be Pureblood to have gold. In the end he got a Nimbus Two Thousand and One so that he and Harry didn't mix their brooms up.

"That's enough of that Payne," Wood shouted back.

"Alright I'll admit it, I'm drowning in the rain, happy?" Harry nearly fell off his broom as he laughed.

That afternoon they were still laughing at Andrew's antics as they headed into the castle to get cleaned up.

"Next week, it's Halloween right?" Harry asked and Andrew nodded as they noticed Nearly-Headless Nick looking out of a window, half angry, half sad, and mumbling to himself.

"Hi Nick," Harry called, bringing the ghost out of his thoughts.

"Oh hello you two," he said as he jump a little.

"Is something on your mind?" Andrew asked politely.

At this Nick hurriedly and angrily explained how he had failed to get into the Headless Hunt because his head was still attached to his neck by no more than half an inch. After the tirade was over Andrew looked Nick dead, no pun intended, in the eye.

"Feel better?" He asked.

By now Nick was panting for breath he really didn't need "Yes ... now that you mention it, thank you,"

As he said this they all turned at the sound of a loud 'meow' behind them and saw Mrs Norris staring at them and then she ran off.

"Oh MUD!" Andrew cried out and as he and Harry turned to run they slammed right into Filch's stomach.

"Filth!" he nearly screamed through his scarf, it seemed he had a cold at least.

He led them away to his office, muttering incoherently thanks to his scarf. Once in his office he grabbed two forms and started filling them out just before they all heard a thunderous crash from above.

"PEAVES!" Filch screamed and charged from the room.

"Guess we should wait for him or we'll be in more trouble," Harry sighed as he sat down; Andrew meanwhile started reading the forms Filch had been filling in.

"Crime and suggested sentence," he scoffed "what is he, Judge and jury?"

"In his mind," Harry sighed.

"Wait, what's Kwikspell?" Andrew asked, picking up a purple envelope. He read out some parts of the leaflet that was inside, looking up at Harry with confusion. "Have you ever seen Filch do magic?"

"No, but obviously he can't be a Muggle or he couldn't be here," Harry answered as they heard Filch coming back, Andrew stuffed the parchment back into the envelope and hastily put it back on the desk, hoping that it looked untouched and turned his back to it, leaning against the desk casually.

When Filch came back in he instantly suspected that they had read what was in his envelope, so a mixture of determination to get rid of Peeves and fear of what they might have read, got them out of their trouble involving the mud, so they ran off.

"Did it work?" Nick asked as they got to the floor above Filch's office.

"Got off scot-free," Andrew said, beaming.

"What did you do?" Harry asked, amazed at their luck.

"I convinced Peeves to drop a cabinet over Filch's office," Nick said with a bit of pride.

"Bet it didn't take much effort," Harry laughed.

They started heading back to Gryffindor Tower, Nick still glancing sadly at his letter.

"Wish there was something we could do," Andrew said as he read it, thinking that maybe there might be a way to help Nick lose his head.

Five minutes later he wished he'd kept his mouth shut as he and Harry climbed in through the portrait hole to their common room.

"How did we get from a nice gesture to agreeing to go to a Death-day party and dragging our friends along?" Andrew mused exasperatedly.

"Not only that," Harry added with a sigh, "we gotta convince a bunch of ghosts that Nick's terrifying."

Hermione and Ron seemed interested in the idea, but Mel was nowhere to be found to ask.

"Guess we'll have to go without her," Ron said with a shrug.

What worried Andrew for the next week was how Mel was being quiet in class and whenever the other four tried to talk to her as they left a class she'd mumble something about meeting Ginny and run off.

So it turned out that Ron was right, they'd have to go to the Death-day party without her. So instead of going into the feast they headed towards the dungeons, which turned out to be totally freezing.

The lighting was provided by candles with blue flames which even made the living look dead, the music nearly made their ears burst and their spines crack, but the food was the worst, everything was rotten, the idea was for the ghostly guests to float through the food with their mouths open, at which point they could almost taste a normal flavour.

"I think I might be sick," Andrew said with false cheer.

"Let's move away from this food," Ron complained with his robes covering his nose.

"So tell me about that Ghost you wanted to avoid," Andrew said to Hermione once they couldn't smell the 'food' anymore.

"Moaning Myrtle, she's the reason nobody goes into the second floor girl's toilet," Hermione explained. "She's always flooding the place with her tantrums."

"OOOH that's not a very nice thing to say," cackled Peeves from behind them.

"Evening Peeves, enjoying the party?" Andrew asked.

"Oh yes, and I'm about to have a little more fun," he cackled again.

"Before you start," Andrew began. "Thanks for the help at the feast and I must say fantastic shot."

Peeves paused, on the verge of calling someone. "Who did it land in front of?" he asked.

"McCarthy, Crabbe, Goyle, Starr and Malfoy!" Andrew laughed. "It was PRICELESS!"

"Thank you, oh Myrtle, MYRTLE!" Peeves called, ignoring Hermione who had been trying to convince him to stop.

When Andrew laid eyes on her he instantly felt sorry for Myrtle, she looked very sad and lonely.

"Miss Granger was just talking about you," Peeves said with a cruel grin and Andrew gave him a warning glare, to which he backed down.

"Just saying how nice you look tonight and that it's nice to see you out of your toilet," Hermione defended herself hastily.

Myrtle sniffed and started to cry. "You're making fun of me; I know what people really say behind my back!"

"Peeves if you even THINK of saying that I will choke you to within an inch of your death," Andrew snapped.

But it was too late, Myrtle had guessed he was going to say something horribly cruel and flew off in a storm of tears.

Things started going downhill for Nick then, because the Headless Hunt arrived. They got highly on Andrew's nerves when they started interrupted Nick's speech by throwing someone's head at him, but Andrew caught it with the Force.

"You know, you've got some nerve coming here after rejecting Nick in your pathetic hunt, and to top it off you then attempt to disrupt his party with your antics," he said in a dangerously quiet voice which everyone heard due to the dead quiet.

"I suggest you leave now, before I get _angry_!" Sir Properly Decapitated Podmore's head then started to scream in pain as Andrew introduced him to Force Lightning, the Headless Hunt group then collected the head after Andrew threw it out of a window and they didn't come back.

"Nick, it's been a pleasure, but none of us living folk have had a chance to eat, would it be too rude for us to take our leave?" Andrew asked politely.

"No not at all," Nick told them with a smile, and the four friends left as Nick began his speech again.

As they were leaving Harry froze and Andrew listened to his mind as the voice was heard again.

"Where's it coming from Harry?" Andrew asked, causing Ron and Hermione to freeze too.

Harry didn't answer; he just took off at a run. They ignored the feast and ran up the marble staircase, Andrew no longer listening so that Harry could concentrate and he himself could try to hear it himself.

"It's going to kill someone!" Harry cried out and started running faster.

After running all around the second floor, Ron pointed out that he heard nothing but them and Andrew voiced the possibility that it might have just been in Harry's head.

"Look," Hermione hissed, pointing at something down the last corridor.

There were words shining on the wall in the dim light. They said "THE CHAMBER OF SECRETS HAS BEEN OPENED. ENEMIES OF THE HEIR, BEWARE!"

Andrew sniffed a few times "It's blood, but it doesn't look human," he stated.

"What's that hanging there?" Ron asked, pointing at a wall bracket.

"It's a cat," Andrew pointed out with his keen eyes, stepping closer through a puddle of water, "Holy Force, it's Mrs Norris!" She was as stiff as a board.

They stood there, frozen in place as the feast ended and people started heading up to bed, it wasn't until the corridor was flooded with students as well as water that they were broken from their trance.

"Enemies of the heir, beware!" McCarthy read questioningly "You'll be next Mudbloods!"

Andrew had pulled his lightsaber from his belt and was about to attack, when Filch called out "What's goin' on 'ere?"

"( _Oh not good,_ )" Andrew thought.


	6. Writings, Rogues and Clubs

Chapter 6 – Writings, Rogues and Clubs

Filch pushed his way through the crowd, his eyes instantly caught sight of Mrs Norris. "My cat!" he shrieked. "What's happened to Mrs Norris?!" Then he saw Harry and moved towards him, hands going for his throat, forcing Andrew to hold him off with relative ease.

" _You!_ You've murdered my cat! I'll kill you!" Filch's eyes were popping.

"Over my dead body," Andrew stated calmly, readying a push kick to the man's stomach to force him back.

" _Argus_!" Dumbledore arrived, along with several teachers, before Andrew needed to put himself in trouble for attacking the caretaker.

Without a word the headmaster slipped past the four youngsters and detached Mrs Norris from the bracket. "Come with me Mr Filch," he commanded. "You four as well."

"My office is nearest, Headmaster," Lockhart supplied.

"( _Look_ w _ho's the eager beaver,_ )" Andrew thought as he rolled his eyes.

"Thank you Gilderoy," Dumbledore said, giving Andrew a sidelong glance and the strong impression that he heard what Andrew thought.

All those gathered silently stepped aside to allow Dumbledore, Lockhart, McGonagall, Snape, Harry, Ron, Hermione and Andrew to pass.

As they entered Lockhart's office Andrew had to fight not to laugh as he saw several portraits of Lockhart dart out of sight, that wasn't what amused him, it was seeing their hair in rollers.

The real Lockhart was lighting the candles on his desk and stepping aside so Dumbledore could examine Mrs Norris, he laid her on the polished desk and looked very closely, his nose almost touching her fur and the four students kept in the shadows, hoping to go unnoticed if they kept quiet.

As the Headmaster prodded and poked the cat Lockhart hovered all over the place.

"It was definitely a curse that killed her," He began but Andrew cut him off.

"There's just one problem with that theory Professor, she's not even dead!" he'd snapped, causing everyone in the room to look at him sharply.

"And how exactly would you know _that_ Mr Payne?" Snape asked in a dangerous tone as Professor Dumbledore went back to his examination.

"Professor how long have you known me?" Andrew asked.

"Too long," Snape drawled and rolled his eyes.

"Touché" Andrew growled, ignoring the jibe. "Well then you know that as a Jedi, I can sense _life_ ," he stressed the last word and Snape looked at him again as he realised where Andrew was going. "I can _sense_ her life through the Force!"

At this point Dumbledore stood up straight. "Andrew is correct, she is not dead Argus," he announced softly.

Lockhart stopped trying to show off mid-sentence.

"Not dead?" choked Filch "B-but she's all stiff and-and frozen." He was close to tears.

"She has been petrified," answered Dumbledore, "but how I cannot say ..."

"Ask _him_!" Filch screamed with bloodshot eyes and tears flowing freely, pointing at Harry and advancing on him.

"And _how_ exactly do you plan to prove it? Hm?" Andrew demanded. "You think that just because you tried to have me and Harry strung up for dragging a little mud into the castle, we'd be as petty as you and attack your bloody cat?"

"You two know I'm a ..." Filch faltered "a-a … a Squib!"

"I never touched Mrs Norris," Harry countered "… and what the heck _is_ a Squib?"

"That doesn't matter Harry, Argus?" Dumbledore waited for Filch to turn and face him. "No second year student could have done this, it would require Dark Magic of the most advanced kind."

Filch was about to say something when Snape interjected.

"If I may Headmaster," he paused until all eyes were on him, "perhaps Potter and his friends were simply in the wrong place at the wrong time."

"( _Let me do the talking,_ )" Andrew told the others, knowing Snape was about to 'flick the switch' and drop them in it.

"However," Snape continued, glaring at Andrew, "we should ask what they were doing in that corridor at all, why were they not at the Halloween Feast?"

"We were invited to Nearly-Headless Nick's Deathday party," Andrew answered, "as you can imagine we got one whiff of the 'food' there and lost our appetites. So we _were_ heading to bed."

Snape glared at Andrew a little more before shocking the lad rigid. "( _Well played._ )"

"There were hundreds of ghosts there if you'd like to check with them," Harry interjected as Ron's stomach grumbled.

"My cat has been petrified," Filch growled tearfully "I want to see some _punishment_!"

"We will be able to cure her Argus," Dumbledore said soothingly, turning to the four students. "You may go, Minerva, see to it that they get back to their common room and that they eat something please?"

Professor McGonagall nodded and shepherded the four of them out and marched them to their common room, once there she conjured a plate of sandwiches, and sat down to read one of Andrew's novels, 'Angels and Demons' to be specific.

"( _Do you think I should have told them about the voice I heard_?)" Harry asked telepathically so the Professor didn't hear.

"( _No mate, don't be daft,_ )" Ron answered.

"( _Ron's right Harry,_ )" Hermione added, "( _even in the Wizarding World, hearing voices isn't a good sign._ )"

"Professor?" Andrew asked, aloud. "What's likely to happen to Mrs Norris?"

McGonagall looked up from the book. "I believe you recently re-potted Mandrakes, yes?" the children nodded. "Well once they mature then most likely Professor Snape will brew them into the appropriate potion to revive her."

"Well that's certainly good news," Andrew answered, finishing his second sandwich and biting into a third before gagging. "YUCK! Peanut butter!" he spat the contents of his mouth into the roaring fire. "Please excuse me."

"On that note, I'm off to bed." Hermione stated, getting up and going to bed.

After she left, Harry reiterated his earlier question, "So what is a Squib?" to which Ron sniggered.

"It is _not_ a laughing matter Mr Weasley," Professor McGonagall answered.

"Sorry Professor," Ron apologised before controlling himself. "Well you know how McCarthy keeps calling Hermione a 'Mudblood'?"

"He _what_?" Mcgonagall exploded. "I shall be having words with his Head of House over this."

"Go on Ron," Andrew said, still curious for an answer,

"Well, a Squib is the complete opposite, a person with magical parents who can't perform magic." Ron explained.

Andrew and Harry both nodded in an 'oooh' sort of way.

"If Filch is a Squib it explains a lot." Ron added.

"Hmm, like why he hates us students so much," Andrew answered, "the poor man's bitter."

Just then a bell chimed and they all looked at the clock.

"Midnight," Professor McGonagall announced, causing Mel's cat to leap into her lap.

"We better get to bed before Snape tries to frame us for something else," Harry said, getting up, then he apologised to the Professor for his implication.

Unsurprisingly the next few day were filled with gossip all over the school regarding the attack on Mrs Norris. Filch was sure to keep it in everyone's minds by patrolling the spot where she was found as though he thought the attacker might come back for him to catch. That and he also tried to clean the message on the wall from time to time, to no avail.

Plus if Filch wasn't patrolling that spot, he was skulking around the corridors, lunging at everyone for stupid reasons like 'looking happy', he soon stopped lunging at people when Jax responded by introducing the caretaker to a Force choke.

Ginny and Mel were both upset at the news about Mrs Norris, both being rather protective and possessive about Mel's cat Midnight. Ron kept going from one tact to the other, saying one moment that the school was better off without Mrs Norris, to reassuring them that this sort of thing didn't normally happen at Hogwarts and, "They'll catch the nutter who did it and have him out of here in no time." Then he joked that he hoped Filch got attacked before that happened and that caused Ginny to turned very pale.

Andrew couldn't put his finger on it, but something seemed off with Mel. She was being unusually quiet since the attack, never leaving Ginny's side except for bed or class and never saying a word even then. Andrew kept it to himself for now, intending to talk to her when he didn't have as much homework as he did. The only reason he was falling behind was due to a mixture of homework, Quidditch practise, his Jedi Training and then he kept drifting off into wondering who attacked Mrs Norris and why.

Hermione was affected by the attack too, taking to more reading than usual, refusing to answer Harry and Ron when they asked her what she was up to. It was the next Wednesday when they found out why.

Harry and Andrew had been held back after potions, Snape had made them scrape tubeworms off the desks and Andrew suspected it was due to them getting out of trouble on Halloween. After a hurried lunch and finishing off History of Magic homework in the library, Hermione finally explained she was annoyed at herself for leaving her copy of Hogwarts: A History at home and that there was a two week waiting list for it in the library.

"Why do you want it?" Harry asked.

"The same reason everyone else wants it," she answered "to read up on the legend of The Chamber of Secrets."

"You mean because of that writing on the wall?" Andrew asked.

"Yes, I can't remember what Hogwarts: A History says about it and I can't find anything about it anywhere else in here!" Hermione fumed quietly, motioning to all the books around her.

"I wish I could help, Hermione, but I left my copy at home and I've yet to read the whole thing," Andrew said apologetically. "I've read the chapter about the Great Hall and then put it down so I could go and train and never picked it up again."

Harry checked his watch and said it was time to make their way to History of Magic.

"Anyone know just how old Professor Binns is? Technically?" Andrew asked.

"Only that it's somewhere into triple digits," answered Harry with a laugh.

"Maybe you could ask him Hermione," Andrew suggested with a shrug, "if anyone's going to know it'd be the ghost of a history teacher."

"Hmm, that's one possibility, I'll see if I can get his attention in class." she said as they rounded the last corner leading to their class.

As far as Andrew could recall, it was the first lesson where the entire class spent more than a few seconds at a time fully awake. They were keenly interested in what Professor Binns was saying for a full fifteen minutes.

Though at first he tried to deflect Hermione's questions regarding The Chamber of Secrets, he eventually relented and told them the legend. Hogwarts was founded by the four greatest wizards of the age, Godric Gryffindor, Helena Hufflepuff, Rowena Ravenclaw and Salazar Slytherin.

He told the class about how they started off without the Sorting Hat, simply picking whichever students for their houses which they thought were the best. Much like how muggle children pick playground football teams, the Muggle-borns thought. But then one day Slytherin had a major fallout with Gryffindor, because he wanted to only take pureblood students into the school and the others disagreed.

The legend was that Slytherin built his own chamber deep within the castle that the others didn't know about, a chamber he sealed before he left. Legend told that one day Slytherin's own descendant would come to the school, open the chamber and release the 'horror within', a monster that only the true heir of Slytherin could control, to cleanse the school of all those that Slytherin believed to be unworthy of magic, in other words Muggle-borns.

After having the legend explained, a small debate on whether it was fact or myth and about five minutes … most of the class was asleep again thanks to Professor Binns' monotone, droning voice.

"I always knew Salazar Slytherin was a twisted old loon," Ron exclaimed while everyone was on their way up to their dorms to drop off their bags before dinner.

Andrew didn't hear the rest because Mel pulled on his arm to stop him.

"Andrew I need to talk to you," she said.

"Sure thing, I've been meaning to talk to you too," he answered "what's up?"

She sighed, not really knowing where to begin. "I … I think something might be wrong with me ..." she mumbled, Andrew gently took her elbow and lead her into an empty classroom.

Sitting casually on a desk he said one word to her "Spill."

Despite how she was feeling, Mel smiled. "Ever since the attack on Halloween, I've noticed that there's … gaps, in my memory. I don't know what I've been doing for … hours at a time." She was starting to look panicked. "Andrew I can't remember an entire Saturday!"

Seeing tears in her eyes Andrew wrapped his arms around her. "Hey it's okay, tell you what, after dinner tonight, we'll go see Madam Pomfrey, alright?"

She calmed down a little and smiled at him, almost clinging to him "Thank you."

They left the classroom to find the corridor empty. "Race you to the Fat Lady?" Andrew asked, Mel grinned and they set off, getting to the Grand Staircase at the same time, they started to use the Force to leap from one set of stairs to the next, criss-crossing the room that the moving staircases resided in as they made their way upwards, getting to the seventh floor just as Harry, Ron and Hermione got there.

Panting the Padawans grinned at their friends. "What kept you?" they asked together.

"We were checking out the scene of the attack," Ron answered, causing Mel to go quiet and rub her arm self-consciously.

"And?" Andrew asked.

Harry explained how they found some scorch marks, saw spiders clambering to get out of the castle through a cracked pane of glass and that the water, which had since been mopped up, had come from Myrtle's bathroom.

"You think she caused it after leaving the Deathday party?" Andrew asked, they had continued walking and were now one corridor away from their common room.

"It's a possibility," Hermione answered. "Anyway, we're all missing dinner, by the way, where were you two?"

While they ate, Ron explained their little talk with Myrtle and how Percy caught them coming out of her bathroom, resulting in them losing five points for Gryffindor, so after dinner and after Andrew and Mel had gone to the hospital wing, the Padawans found their friends sitting as far from the prefect as they could.

"How did it go with Madam Pomfrey?" Hermione asked.

"She couldn't explain what's happening with my memory, but she's taken a blood sample to see if she can find anything," Mel answered.

"Isn't blood testing a rather Muggle medical thing?" Harry asked.

"Not in the Wizarding world," Hermione answered, "with a Witch doing a blood test, she can do everything a Muggle doctor can, _and_ see if any memory charms have been cast on her."

"There are some spells that don't leave any trace, even on a blood sample," Ron added.

With that they tried to get on with some homework, but with little success thanks to Ron's wand. After he lost his temper and slammed his textbook shut, Hermione closed her book too.

They ended up talking and speculating on who the attacker could be, Mel kept working while the others talked, and later excused herself to go to bed.

Ron and Harry thought that the Heir could be Malfoy, which Andrew said was a possible candidate, along with everyone else in that house.

"Could even be Jax," he added.

"How do you figure that?" Ron asked, worried.

"Well, we know his Master is his _adoptive_ mother, and he _is_ in Slytherin, so he could be an orphaned Pureblood, so with no idea who his family is ..." Andrew let the unfinished sentence hang in the air.

"There is one way we could find out, well at least check if it's Malfoy," Hermione piped up.

"Go on," Andrew said with a nod.

"We need to get into the Slytherin common room and question Malfoy without him realising it's us," Hermione explained.

"Well that's impossible," Harry almost snapped.

"Not if we used Polyjuice Potion, it's a substance that can be used to make you look like someone else," Andrew answered, the others looks at him. "I've spent a few long nights in the library, interestingly enough you're allowed to read restricted books without a teacher's signature, you just can't borrow them."

"Do you remember how to make it?" Hermione asked.

"Sadly, I only read about it, what it does and such. I never found a recipe, so I don't even know what the ingredients are." Andrew replied. "But can I point out one tiny problem?" he asked, holding a finger up. When the other three looked at him he continued. "Jax, he's Force-sensitive. If we walked up to him disguised as Crabbe, Goyle, McCarthy and Parkinson, he'll know it's us because, in my case at least, he'll recognise my Force signature." he explained.

"There might be a way it could work," Ron stated after snapping his fingers. "You and Jax were both called home for Christmas last year."

"Malfoy went home too remember?" Harry responded.

"I see where you're going Ron," Andrew started. "If you're right about Malfoy, he'll choose to stay this Christmas, but Jax will still be called home by the Sith Order, so you'll be able to question him," he paused, "of course you'll have to tell me after the holidays what happened."

"So what do we need to do?" Harry asked.

Hermione explained that the first thing they had to do was get a book out of the restricted section of the library, for which they needed a signed note from a teacher.

"Well that's us sunk then, no teacher is going to sign a note explaining which book we want, they'll ask us what we need it for." Ron said with exasperation.

At that moment a devious grin formed on Andrew's face. "I think I have an idea."

After the utter shambles that was Lockhart's first class, he'd taken to just reading to them from the pages of his books, using Harry to re-enact the more dramatic bits.

"( _This is supposed to be Defence Against The Dark Arts, right_?)" Andrew asked Ron and Hermione while Harry was pretending to be a Werewolf.

"( _It_ is _Defence Against The Dark Arts, Andrew!_ )" Hermione responded haughtily.

"( _No, Hermione, this is Story Time,_ )" Andrew answered, causing Ron to snigger just as Harry was being made to 'howl'.

Lockhart finished his story and set homework for the students to write a poem about it. Harry joined his friends at the back of the class, where the four of them waited for the class to leave, Mel said she was heading to the Hospital Wing to see if Madam Pomfrey had any results yet.

Andrew's suggestion the night before was to use Lockhart to get permission to get the book they needed from the restricted section. Andrew believed, and Hermione did _not_ like the way he worded it, that Lockhart would sign any piece of paper that sat still long enough.

Sure enough, he bought Hermione's statement that the book was for background reading only and signed her note without even reading it. He tried, yet again, to make himself look important by offering Harry Seeker advice and they left.

They made their way to the library, Ron and Hermione bickering over Lockarts intelligence, or lack thereof, and showed the note to Madam Pince, the Librarian. She was highly suspicious about the book they wanted and Hermione was reluctant to release the signed note.

Andrew gently pried her fingers from the parchment with the Force. "You're bound to win the signed copy of 'Magical Me' once we hand our homework in, patience Hermione," he told her calmly.

After satisfying herself that the note wasn't a fake, Madam Pince went and fetched the book from the restricted section. Five minutes after leaving the library, the four of them were barricaded in Myrtle's Bathroom as Hermione insisted that it was the one place in the entire castle where they were guaranteed some privacy.

Andrew thought about telling his friends about the Room of Requirement that Fane had told him about last year, but part of him felt happy about having something to himself, a rare thing for any Jedi besides their lightsaber.

They walked past Myrtle crying in her stall and went to work, Andrew held back and told his friends to carry on as he politely knocked on Myrtle's stall door. The crying came to an eventual stop as her head came through the door to glare at the boy disturbing her.

"What do you want!" she snapped.

"I heard you crying, I'll not ask the stupid question," he made quotation marks on either side of his head "'Are you alright?' Instead I'll say, if you want to talk, I'm a great listener,"

Myrtle looked surprised at this and floated through her door all the way, tears welling in her eyes. "N-nobody's ever said anything so nice before!" she burst into tears and Andrew opened his arms to give her a hug, she threw her arms around his neck, fully expecting to fall right through him, but he used the Force to make a barrier between them so that she couldn't pass through him.

"That's it, let it out," Andrew told her, 'patting' her back. He looked over at his friends by the sinks who had stopped going over the list of ingredients and stared in shock at what was happening, Andrew shrugged. "What? Compassion, it's a Jedi thing," Myrtle laughed despite her heaving sobs.

After she quieted down and answered Andrew's question if she felt better, they got back to work, Hermione passing on the bad news that the Polyjuice potion was going to take about a month to brew and that there were a few ingredients that they would have to steal from Snape's private stores, plus they also had to get a piece of the person they wanted to turn into.

Ron of all people tried to say that it was going to be a bad idea to try and steal from Snape and Hermione almost left to return the book if the boys were going to 'chicken out'. "I never thought I'd live to see the day that _you_ tried to convince _us_ to break the rules, OK then, let's do it, but no toenails alright?" Ron said, crossing his arms at the toenails part.

"A strand of hair will probably do it," Andrew answered.

After sorting out a basic outline of a plan, Hermione and Andrew checked that nobody was outside before they all left.

The next Saturday morning, Harry and Andrew woke up early, Andrew setting about getting dressed and Harry just laying in bed, thinking about the upcoming match.

"Think Wood will have me starting on the bench?" Andrew asked, knowing Harry was awake.

"I'm not sure, either he's going to go for experience or raw skill, we're up against a full team of seven of the fastest brooms on the market," Harry answered.

They went down to breakfast, Harry talking about how he was worried Malfoy's straight-line speed would outmatch him in the race for the Snitch and Andrew trying to reassure him that in the Muggle world, tech never beats skill.

They entered the Great Hall and found the rest of the team huddled together, Andrew got himself a mint tea and tried to break the tension.

"So … how about those Broncos?" he asked, causing the twins to crack a smile and the three chaser girls to giggle. Wood sighed and patted Andrew on the shoulder, saying his thanks. "Hey, just call me Joker," Andrew answered with a fake cackle.

At eleven o'clock Harry and Andrew said their goodbyes to Ron and Hermione at the changing room and went inside to pull on their Quidditch robes.

Once everyone was dressed and sat down, Oliver began his pep talk.

"Slytherin have better brooms, there's no point denying that," he started, "but we have better _people_ on our brooms." Andrew whooped and the team applauded the sentiment.

"We've trained harder than they have," Wood continued, "we've practised in all weathers," he allowed himself a little smirk remembering Andrew's antics during practise, "we've got our secret weapon who can literately go everywhere and do everything,"

"Steady on skipper, not all at once," Andrew responded indignantly.

"And we're going to make them rue the day they let that little slimeball Malfoy buy his way onto the team." The changing room erupted into cheers.

"It'll be down to you Harry, to show that a Seeker has to have something more than a rich father. Get to that Snitch before Malfoy or die trying." Wood told Harry.

Andrew shuddered. "I suddenly have a bad feeling about this."

"Andrew, I'm warming the bench, I want you to be the Keeper, you know your party piece, use it," Andrew saluted.

"They won't know what hit 'em, Boss," he grinned and they grabbed their brooms and marched out to the roar of the crowd.

In the centre of the pitch, Madam Hooch asked Flint and Wood to shake hands, then Oliver stepped off the pitch and tagged hands with Andrew as he jogged on, all fourteen players mounted their brooms and kicked off.

Six Chasers faced each other forming a circle above Hooch, four Beaters hovered above and behind their respective Chasers, two Seekers glared at each other at the highest point and two Keepers hovered before their centre goal hoop.

"Now I want a nice clean game, from _all_ of you," Madam Hooch called, glaring around all the players and particularly at the Slytherin players.

"( _Good luck with that_ ,)" Andrew thought to himself as she kicked open the crate holding the balls, two Bludgers shot into the air, followed by the Snitch which Andrew nearly focused on before remembering it was Harry's job not his.

Madam Hooch threw the Quaffle into the air and Slytherin took possession immediately, the Gryffindor Chasers should have chased after the ball but instead started making their way towards the Slytherin goals.

Flint was passed the ball and took a shot on goal which Andrew caught easily and then, to the shock of everyone watching he leapt off his broom, onto Flints, then he sprung from it with the Quaflle under his arm and literally bounced from broom to broom until finally he landed on George Weasley's broom handle, he took a shot which sailed right passed the still shocked Slytherin Keeper into the centre goal, Alicia caught it and threw it back, and Andrew borrowed George's club and whacked the Quaffle into the left goal and Katie passed it back so Andrew to slam dunk the Quaffle into the right goal.

At this point the team agreed that they had done enough and they lined up so Andrew could run back to his slowly sinking broom, he showed off a little by somersaulting from Fred's broom onto his own, punching the air as he landed. But once he was there he noticed that Harry was in trouble. The same Bludger was going after Harry over and over, ignoring the rest of the players.

Fifteen minutes later, the Gryffindor Chasers had managed to score three more goals and Andrew had nearly been effectively red carded for stopping a shot with the Force, so he had to guard against a penalty which he didn't manage to save, he was then ordered never to try cheating again, so he'd conceded one goal. It was raining now and Oliver called a timeout.

"Alright we're winning 60-10 but Beaters, Andrew can't guard the goals alone," he told them.

"It's that Bludger, it's been tampered with, it won't stop trying to take Harry's head off," Fred almost shouted.

"Oliver we need to call for an inquiry, before it kills him," Angelina added.

"We can't!" Harry objected. "If we do that, we have to forfeit the match."

"I've got another idea, Harry, when we get going again, fly right at me, I'll try and grab it," Andrew said "Fred and George can work on the other one, trust me."

He also asked Oliver to fetch his lightsaber from the changing room just in case. "If I can't stop it the first time, I _will_ the second time."

"I don't like this Harry," George chimed in, "that thing's out to kill you."

"All I know is I can't catch the Snitch with you two babysitting me, Wood, tell them to leave me alone!" Harry answered.

Oliver nodded and sent his team back to their brooms while he ducked into the changing room and came back with Andrew's lightsaber.

They kicked off again and Harry immediately had to dodge before he went shooting towards his team's goal, gunning right for Andrew before veering off at the last second, allowing Andrew to get between the Bludger and its target, it slammed into his stomach and he gripped it with all his might.

Out of the corner of his eye he noticed Harry and Malfoy dive under the stands, going after the Snitch. Suddenly the Rogue Bludger made an extra effort to escape, causing Andrew's arms to become outstretched, the Bludger slipped through his fingers and smashed right into Flint's face, knocking him unconscious and off his broom, another Slytherin Chaser took a shot on Andrew's goal, causing him to flip onto his broom handle and use it like a baseball bat and return the Quaffle to the shooter's face, once he was securely back on his broom he reached a hand out and used the Force to catch Flint before he hit the floor and injured himself further.

Madam Hooch was checking on Flint when Andrew looked up just in time to see the mad Bludger knock Malfoy off his broom in its quest to get to Harry, who was reaching out for the Snitch when the Bludger broke his arm. Harry then reached out his other arm and grabbed the Snitch before taking a shallow dive to get off his broom fast.

Sprawled on the floor, Harry was at the mercy of the Bludger that was _still_ trying to get him, it slammed into the ground as Harry rolled around on the floor, it was coming down for a third strike to his head when a blur shot out and annihilated it, with a red lightsaber.

Jax put his weapon away and offered his hand to help Harry up, once Harry was on his feet, Jax nodded once and walked away.

"GREAT JOB 'ARRY YOU GOT IT!" Hagrid bellowed over the noise of the crowd as he patted him on the back, causing Harry to nearly scream in pain and cradle his arm.

Andrew got there with the rest of the team in time to see Lockhart about to use his wand on Harry, but before anyone could do anything to stop him, Harry's arm had no bones in it.

Rushing forward, Andrew glared at Lockhart. "If you weren't a teacher I'd have your wand hand for this!"

Ron, Hermione, Andrew and the Gryffindor team helped Harry to the Hospital Wing, where they found Madam Pomfrey in a furious mood, yelling about how Harry should have been brought straight to her.

"What was the score?" Harry asked once she'd gone to fetch something.

"210-60," Oliver answered.

"Sorry about that, between making sure Flint didn't get killed by his fall and watching Harry, I guess I let a few slip in," Andrew apologised while rubbing the back of his head.

Just then Madam Pomfrey came back with a white bottle and a glass "I can mend bones in a heartbeat, but growing them back?"

"You will be able to, right?" Ron asked.

"Oh yes, I'll be able to, but it will be _painful_ ," she poured a glass, the bottle said 'Skele-Gro', and put it on his bedside before passing Harry some pyjamas and closing the screen, leaving Andrew to help Harry change.

It could have taken longer than it did, but Andrew used the Force. Once the screen was opened, Madam Pomfrey handed Harry the glass and told him to drink it, which he did, causing him to make a nasty face and cough heavily.

"Well what did you expect, Pumpkin Juice?" Madam Pomfrey said in frustration.

"See you in the morning Harry," Ron said as they left him in bed, once they were outside they bumped into Jax.

"Glad you're here," Andrew said, offering his hand. Jax stared at it for a moment before shrugging and shaking it. "Thanks for saving Harry back there."

"You're welcome, how is he?" Jax asked.

"In for the night, regrowing his bones," Ron answered darkly.

"Yeah, no thanks to Malfoy," Hermione spat.

"I highly doubt that," Jax stated calmly, "I don't think he's got the brains."

Before anyone could question that, the rest of the team was chased out by Madam Pomfrey and Jax slipped away in the confusion.

The next morning, Harry's bones had regrown, and Colin was laying in a hospital bed, petrified.

Harry told his friends what he'd seen happen, and that Dobby the House Elf had come to see him, confessing that he was the one responsible for the Bludger breaking his arm while also trying to tell him why.

"If he keeps trying to save your life, he's going to kill you," Andrew said while shaking his head, they were making a start on brewing the Polyjuice potion when Harry found them in Myrtle's bathroom.

"Too right," Ron added.

"He told me that all this happened before," Harry explained, "I guess he thinks if he can get me sent home then I'll be safe from, whatever is happening."

"The chamber has been opened _before?_ " Hermione gasped.

"That settles it, Lucius Malfoy must've opened the chamber when he was here and now he's taught dear old Draco how to do it," Ron said triumphantly.

"Hmm, possible, but we've no evidence, just a theory that happens to fit all the facts we have," Andrew pointed out, "I'd put money on the fact that we're still missing something."

"Such as?" Hermione asked.

"Well this 'monster'." Andrew answered. "The heir of Slytherin is supposed to be the _only_ one who can control it … how? Telepathy?"

"If that were true then you could control it, right?" Ron answered.

"Exactly, and I don't think Malfoy knows telepathy."

"We'll be able to ask once the potion is ready," Hermione stated.

"Good point, so it was Dobby that made us miss the train then?" Andrew asked, Harry nodded.

"Andrew's right, if he doesn't stop trying to save your life he's gonna kill you," Ron joked.

News of Colin had spread around the whole school by Monday and First-years were so scared they were going about in groups of at least five or six, they were so tightly knit that it was hard to tell.

Everywhere anyone went, there was whispering, gossip and suspicion mostly. Ginny was distraught because she sat next to Colin in her Charms class, and Mel was once again close to a break down because she couldn't remember a single thing from Saturday, even meditation didn't help. Lucky for her their Masters chose not to come and train them that weekend as Andrew was busy with the match.

Thanks to the attack on Colin, a 'black-market' of sorts had sprung up, selling talismans, amulets and other items supposed to protect people from harm.

Sadly Neville got suckered into buying a few items for fear that some thought of him to be a Squib.

When Professor McGonagall came around to collect the names of people staying for Christmas, Harry, Ron and Hermione signed their names, Andrew politely declined, as did Mel. The suspicious thing was that Malfoy, Crabbe and Goyle were all staying too.

"You'll have to tell me how it goes," Andrew said, referring to the potion, as Mel gave Ginny a tight hug.

In that regard, they had run into a snag, they still needed powdered horn of a Bicorn and Boonslang skin, both of which were going to be located in Snape's private stores.

"What we need," Hermione said as their double potions class loomed nearer and nearer, "is a diversion, then one of us could sneak into Snape's office and grab what we needed."

"If you can get his attention, I think I can do the actual stealing," Andrew offered, "I'm a lot quicker and quieter than you guys, and besides, I'm not going to be able to help over the holidays, so this is probably the only way I'll be able to help if at all."

"But if you get caught you'll probably get expelled, I've at least got a clean record," Hermione pointed out.

"I'll be fine Hermione," Andrew said, "I'm getting better at thinking on my feet, look at our adventure last year."

The thing that made the whole idea dangerous was the simple thought of causing some mayhem in Snape's classroom. Put simply he hated Gryffindor students, Harry especially. So during the lesson, Snape was walking around, making nasty comments on the Gryffindor potions and complimenting the Slytherin students.

Malfoy was taking the time to throw puffer-fish eyes at Ron and tried to get Andrew in trouble after the fifth time this happened because his eye stopped in mid air and flew right into Malfoy's mouth.

"I didn't 'touch' that eye Sir," Andrew said calmly as he carried on working, "perhaps if Draco wasn't so childish as to throw things in class he wouldn't have had something come back to him."

At this, Snape sneered, knowing it was Andrew and his abilities but unable to prove anything, he told Malfoy to behave himself and dropped the matter.

While Snape was then griping at Harry's potion, Andrew went to the stores cupboard to 'collect a missing ingredient', which was Harry's signal, soon as Snape moved on to Neville's potion, Harry took out a wet start firework and lobbed it across the room, where it landed in Goyle's potion with a 'plop' and exploded.

While Snape was busy with the commotion, Andrew Force dashed into the next room, grabbed what he needed, based off Hermione's description of the items and shot out again in under 30 seconds, he passed off what he had to Hermione, who told him telepathically that he had the right items, and offered his assistance to Snape.

Once everyone's swellings had been dealt with, Snape found the firework and threatened the class that the culprit would be expelled.

After the class was over the four of them retreated to Myrtle's bathroom to add the last ingredients, Hermione stating that the potion would be ready in a fortnight.

A week later, Harry, Ron, Hermione and Andrew were walking towards the Great Hall for dinner when they noticed people crowding around the notice board, reading a piece of parchment that Professor McGonagall had pinned up.

"They're setting up a Duelling Club," Seamus called to them as Dean waved them over to look.

"First meeting tonight," Andrew read aloud, "well I wouldn't mind learning how to duel with magic as well as my blade." He took a quill and signed up.

"Imagine if you learned how to do both at once," Dean laughed.

"Ooh let me just fantasise about that for _just_ a minute," Andrew responded dreamily.

"Lessons might come in handy one of these days," Seamus added.

"What, you think Slytherin's monster can duel?" Ron asked as he read with interest.

"Maybe, maybe not," Andrew answered as Ron, Harry and Hermione added their names, "but it's never a bad idea to know how to defend yourself, for instance, throw a punch at me."

Ron looked at Andrew as though he'd just grown two heads. "My fist against your lightsaber, no thanks." Andrew calmly passed his weapon to Hermione and asked her to look after it for him, Ron then shrugged and took a swing. Andrew caught the punch easily in his left hand, twisted Ron's wrist painfully to his right and then swiftly moved behind Ron to hold his entire arm in a painful lock, his fist almost touching his shoulder blades.

"See? Now you're unable to try and hit me again, well, not with this arm anyway. You should _always_ know how to defend yourself if you happen to be unarmed, or _dis_ armed," Andrew explained before letting Ron go, "how's your arm?"

Ron chuckled, scowling a little as he rubbed his shoulder, "It's fine."

Having all signed up and eaten dinner, Harry, Ron and Hermione all returned to the Great Hall to find the long tables had been removed and a golden stage had appeared along the wall, on which Andrew and Jax were exercising by sparring, furiously.

Jax made to sweep Andrew's legs from under him but he simply back-flipped and landed in the same spot. "Interesting idea of yours to treat the stage like a boxing ring," the Jedi called out before throwing his saber, Jax ducked under it as it flew towards his head and then somersaulted backwards over it when it returned to Andrew's hand.

"It adds more of a challenge," Jax responded with a smirk, dashing forwards and shoulder barging Andrew in the chest before making a downwards slash with his reverse-grip Shien style.

Andrew leapt back to dodge the strike and then powered up a charged Force push, sending Jax back to the far end of the stage just as Lockhart and Snape walked in and called their match to an end.

As they stepped off the stage Andrew muttered to Jax out of the corner of his mouth. "Fudge-nuggets, Lockhart's teaching us?"

"Is he as useless in your classes as he is in ours?" Jax responded, causing Andrew to snigger. "I'll take that as a 'yes'."

"Gather round, gather round!" Lockhart called "Can you all see me?"

"Yes the inflated head is a _dead_ giveaway," Jax muttered.

"Can you all hear me?"

"I'm sorry, speak up? There's a few in Cornwall you can't quite hear you," Andrew added, Hermione scowled at both of them and the few that could hear coughed to keep from laughing.

"Excellent!" Lockhart called, having not heard the jibes. "Now Professor Dumbledore has granted me permission to start this little Duelling Club, to train you all up in case you ever need to defend yourselves as I myself have done on countless occasions – for full details, see my published works."

"Or ask someone who doesn't write fiction," Andrew and Jax muttered together, they looked at each other, Andrew fought hard not to break into a fit of giggles and Jax just scowled.

Lockhart then introduced Snape as his 'assistant', causing Snape to scowl more than he already was, and announced that they were doing to demonstrate a quick duel. "Much like our resident Jedi and Sith, only with magic and not toys."

The crowd bit back a gasp as the two of them took on the most utterly offended look they could possibly manage without breaking their faces and Andrew quickly grabbed Jax's wrist as he lifted his arm.

"He's not worth it Jax," Jax glared at the Jedi next to him, "I know you're sorely tempted to choke him but do you _really_ want to be expelled because of the likes of _him?_ "

Jax kept glaring as he slowly lowered his hand. "For your information Payne I was going to shoot Force Lightning up his arse!"

"Much as I'd pay good money to watch that, still not worth the trouble." Ron whispered as Snape and Lockhart took their positions, drew their wands and bowed to each other.

"Besides, look at Snape's face, Lockhart is _so_ going down here," Malfoy leaned over to Jax and whispered gleefully.

"Now as you can see," Lockhart called, standing in a Fencer's pose, "we are holding our wands in the accepted combative positions. On the count of three, we will cast our first spells. Neither of us will be aiming to kill, of course."

Andrew held out his hand. "Five Galleons says he's on his butt after one spell," the boys around him murmured a laugh and Snape almost smiled, having just heard it.

"One – two – three – "

Before he had even moved, Snape cried "Expelliarmus!" and red light shot out of his wand, hitting Lockhart square in the chest and sending him flying backwards, he slammed back first into a wall, having cleared the stage completely and slumped down into a pile on the floor.

Most of the Slytherins cheered, Andrew and Jax laughed, Hermione asked if Lockhart was alright and Ron asked "Who cares?"

Lockhart got up and tried to cover up how appallingly bad he actually was at duelling, then he and Snape went around splitting everyone up into pairs.

Andrew looked at Jax, Jax looked back.

"Shall we?" The young Sith asked, drawing his wand.

"Tempting, but I was hoping I'd have the pleasure of practising with Professor Snape," Andrew answered, looking up at said professor just as he walked up to them.

"And why would that be Mr Payne?" Snape asked with suspicion.

"Because I'm hoping to be able to practise dual wielding a saber and a wand, I figured a decent duellist such as yourself would be able to provide pointers." Andrew answered, Jax caught on to his idea and was interested.

"Very well, you two wait for me to finish with everyone else and then you two shall both face me." Snape answered and swept off.

A short while later, everyone was paired off. Snape had decided to pit Harry against Malfoy and that had gone badly.

Malfoy had hit Harry before Lockhart had said go, Harry retaliated with a tickling charm and Malfoy, giggling like a madman got Harry with a jelly-legs jinx before Snape stepped in and countered both impediments.

"Perhaps a demonstration of how to protect oneself from incoming attacks," Snape suggested. "Payne, Starr!"

Andrew and Jax stepped forward, shedding their school robes and leaving them in their uniforms, both grey with their house colours for lining.

 **A/N I'm going with the school uniforms from the first two Harry Potter movies, not the third onwards.**

Andrew stood on the left and ignited his sapphire lightsaber while taking on a Djem So stance, while Jax stood on the right and ignited his crimson lightsaber in his preferred reverse-grip Shien stance.

Andrew's lightsaber was in his left hand, his wand was in his right. To his right, Jax was the complete opposite, he'd chosen to use his wand in his left hand.

The three combatants held their wands in front of their faces, swung them down to their sides and bowed.

"Kind of reminds me of basic Makashi," Andrew remarked before Snape held his wand above his head with his hand outstretched, palm towards the floor.

Snape took the first shot, firing a Disarming Charm at Andrew, who deflected it with his blade and sent the same spell back. Snape easily stopped the charm by swiftly waving his wand in a circular motion and calling "Protego," causing a blue transparent shield to form before himself and absorb Andrew's attack.

Snape then shot a Disarming Charm at Jax who deflected it lazily and then shouted "Incendio!" causing fire to blast out of his wand and sail directly towards Snape's chest, but he simply used another Shield Charm and called and end to their demonstration.

After that, Snape had Harry and Malfoy go again. This time Malfoy started with a spell which conjured a live snake from the tip of his wand. It landed two feet from Harry's foot, Snape stepped forward to get rid of it but Lockhart butted in, as usual, and made the snake angry, and it started going for Justin Finch-Fletchley.

Then Harry started walking towards the snake and hissing at it. Unaware to anyone but himself, Jax understood every word he said.

"Leave him alone," Harry was saying, and the snake listened, Justin was furious for some reason and Ron dragged Harry out of the Great Hall with Hermione and Andrew following. Jax himself went rather quiet and left to go back to his common room without anyone noticing.

Once half way back to Gryffindor Tower, Ron started to interrogate Harry for some reason. "You're a Parselmouth Harry, why didn't you tell us?"

"I'm sorry a what?" Harry answered.

"You can talk to snakes," Hermione clarified.

"Yeah, it's only the second time I've ever done it, the first time was before I even knew I was a wizard, I was at the zoo and this boa constrictor was telling me how it had never seen Brazil, so I accidentally set it free." Harry explained.

"A boa constrictor told you it had never seen Brazil?" Ron asked faintly, needing to stop and lean on the staircase railing.

"So?" Andrew asked. "I bet loads of people in the Wizarding world can do it."

"Oh no they can't." Ron fired back "It's not a very common gift, oh this is _so_ bad!"

"How is it bad that I told that snake to leave Justin alone?" Harry asked indignantly.

"Is that what you said?" Andrew asked. "All I heard was hissing."

"Harry," Hermione started in a soothing voice. "Talking to snakes is that Salazar Slytherin was famous for, that's why the symbol for Slytherin house is a serpent."

"Oh wait," Andrew started as he caught on. "You mean everyone in the school is going to start thinking that Harry is Slytherin's heir or something?"

"Exactly," Ron answered.

"But I'm not," Harry said, starting to catch on himself.

"Good luck proving it, he lived over a thousand years ago, for all we know you could be Harry." Andrew answered. "But you'll never have to convince _us_ that you're not the one attacking people."

It snowed overnight so badly that the last Herbology lesson of term had to be cancelled. Meaning Harry couldn't apologise to Justin for scaring him, at the duelling club, while they were in a class together.

So Harry sat by the fire in the Gryffindor common room, Andrew meditated, disassembling, cleaning and rebuilding his lightsaber in the process and Ron and Hermione played a game of Wizard's Chess, all killing time during this free period.

Eventually Hermione spoke up. "Oh for heaven's sake Harry, just go _find_ Justin and apologise if it's so important to you."

Harry agreed with her and stood up, Andrew following suit. "I'll come with you, just in case."

They went to the Library first, hoping to bump into Justin there, but instead found a bunch of other Hufflepuff students, gossiping about Harry.

After deciding he'd heard enough, Andrew stepped in and told the lot of them off.

"How dare you, I mean really how dare you!" he shouted at them, not caring what Madam Pince had to say about the matter.

"There have been two attacks. I was with Harry when Mrs Norris was petrified and Harry was in hospital when Colin was attacked. Are you going to ask me what I was getting up to?"

The one who was making all the accusations, Ernie, looked scared and shook his head.

"I didn't think so, for your information you blasted twit, Harry only discovered last night what a Parslemouth is! LET ALONE THAT HE CAN _TALK_ TO SNAKES!" he was going into full rant mode and Madam Pince looked scandalised. "Plus 'hello?' two of Harry's _best friends_ are Muggle-born … SO WHY WOULD HE WANT TO HURT ANY OF THEM!?"

None of them had thought about that, they looked at each other as if that was the most obvious fact in the world.

"Now I just want to know one thing, are you _starting_ these rumours or just _spreading_ them?" he glared around the table.

"S-sp-spreading them," answered Ernie, causing Andrew to walk up very close to him and smack him on the back of the head.

" _Never_ believe scuttlebutt," he told Ernie calmly, "get _all_ the facts, before you make an accusation."

The group of Hufflepuffs all nodded dumbly. Andrew then perked up a little, "Good, now, can any of you tell us where Justin is? This needs clearing up before it becomes a problem."

"What do you mean?" Asked Hannah. At this point, Harry stepped out of the shadows.

"I want to tell him what I actually said to that snake, I told it to leave him alone," he explained.

"Well, he's kind of hiding from you," said one of the other boys at the table.

"Well if you see him, would you be so kind as to tell him that Harry wants to explain and apologise, I presume he'll be at dinner, so I expect him to come see us at our table, alright?" Andrew asked, the nodded in unison and the two Gryffindors turned and left.

They took to wondering the halls aimlessly, bumping into Hagrid who was heading to the Headmaster's office to request permission to put a charm around the hen-coop because a second rooster had been killed that term. The two boys then realised they had Transfiguration next and rushed off to go get their books, while they were running down a darkened corridor, the torches had been put out by a draught, Harry tripped and fell flat on his face.

"Hang on Harry," Andrew called, pulling out his lightsaber, "Lumos!" he called as he ignited the blade, but instead of the usual blue, the entire blade was giving off the same light a the lumos spell, only brighter because it was bigger.

Harry gasped and Andrew swore, Justin was what Harry had tripped over, he was laying behind Nearly-Headless Nick, who was a smoky black instead of pearly white, both wore identical looks of shock and both were petrified.

Andrew released his lightsaber and it floated as Harry knelt down and checked Justin's neck for a pulse "Thank God, he's still alive."

"Well I could've told you _that_!" Andrew answered.

Just then Peeves showed up, and just as he noticed what was happening, Andrew caught him in a light Force choke.

"Peeves, this is no time for your usual idiocy, go and get some help," Peeves nodded and flew off.

"What do you suppose happened?" Harry asked, laying a hand on Nick, he felt burnt and his hand warmed as it passed through.

"I don't know," Andrew answered. "This monster, whatever it is, can even attack _ghosts_. It's weird, I wouldn't even like to try and make an educated guess right now. One thing's for certain,"

"What's that?"

"Nobody could possibly say you would do this to Nick, he's always liked you," Andrew tried to make light of the situation, but failed miserably.

At that point, Peeves came back with Professors McGonagall, Flitwick and Sinistra.

Flitwick and Sinistra both carried Justin to the Hospital while McGonagall conjured a fan and used it to blow Nick to the Hospital, ordering Andrew and Harry to follow.

"Professor, I swear I didn't –" Harry started.

"It's out of my hands Potter," she cut him off, after Nick was deposited in a hospital bed, she led the two boys to a rather ugly looking gargoyle. "Sherbet Lemon!" she said, causing it to spring to life and step aside, the wall behind it split open, revealing a moving spiral staircase. The three of them stepped onto it and slowly ascended to the top, where gleaming double doors waited for them.

Professor McGonagall used the brass knocker, and sent them in … to Dumbledore's office.


	7. Potions, Diaries, Ministers and Spiders

Chapter 7 – Potions, Diaries, Ministers and Spiders

The two boys looked around, Harry with keen interest, Andrew going straight to the bookshelves to see if the Headmaster had anything new.

"How do you not find this interesting?" Harry asked "It's better than any other teacher's office I've been in."

"I've been here before," Andrew answered, plucking a book off the shelf. "Remember last year when I couldn't sleep?"

"Yeah?" Harry asked absently, looking over all the various instruments spread around the room.

"Well after the first few nights, I met one of the school House Elves," Andrew waited for a second for Harry to catch on before adding. "His name was Fane, anyway, he showed me to this office and Dumbledore allowed me to stop that night, then gave me free reign of the corridors until I passed out."

"Guess we don't need to worry about that this year," Harry commented as he remembered the slight drama of Diagon Alley during the summer.

"Not until after the holidays at least."

At that point, Harry noticed the Sorting Hat sitting on a shelf behind Dumbledore's desk and Andrew picked up on Harry's thoughts.

"It may have offered you Slytherin Harry, but you _chose_ Gryffindor. Something inside you told you not to go to Slytherin, and I believe that if you _were_ Slytherin's Heir, then that same thing would have told you differently." He told Harry that with such finality that he stopped reaching for the hat and turned at the sound of a gagging cough behind them.

"Oh hello," Andrew said as he stepped towards a clearly sick bird with a few remaining reddish-gold feathers, "I didn't seen you before." They stepped closer as a couple of feathers fell off.

They both leaped back in horror as the bird suddenly burst into flames and shrieked as it became a pile of ash on the metal dish at the base of its perch.

Just then Dumbledore came in, looking sombre. Both boys, quite terrified about being blamed for the death of Dumbledore's pet, launched into an explanation of the bird spontaneously combusting.

Funny enough, the Headmaster smiled. "About time too, he's been looking dreadful for days. I've been telling him to get a move on." He then laughed at the confused looks on both their faces.

"Fawkes is a phoenix," he explained.

"Ooh," Andrew said with a snap of his fingers before reciting a bit of Muggle Mythology. "'Phoenix: The Fire Bird' legend says that they're technically immortal, because when they 'die' they're reborn from their own ashes."

At this, they turned in unison and watched as a little chick started to poke its head out from the ash pile.

"Fascinating creatures, phoenixes. They can carry immensely heavy loads, their tears have healing powers and they make highly _faithful_ pets." Dumbledore explained.

Just after the Headmaster had settled himself in his chair, they were all reminded of why the boys were there by Hagrid, as he came barging into the office with a loud bang, shouting about how it wasn't Harry or Andrew who had attacked Justin or Nick or anyone else.

It took Dumbledor shouting to get Hagrid to stop ranting, "I do _not_ think that either of them attacked those people."

"Oh," Hagrid said, the dead rooster he'd been waving around in agitation falling limply at his side. "Right, I'll wait outside then, Headmaster." Then he stomped out looking embarrassed.

"You don't think it was us Professor?" Harry asked as Dumbledore brushed rooster feathers off his desk.

"No, Harry I don't," he answered and paused a moment, looking from one to the other. "But I would still like to talk to you both." He paused again, considering them both while pressing the tips of his fingers together. "I must ask, if there is anything either of you would like to tell me," he said gently, "anything at all."

Andrew considered this for a moment, there was a thing or two, Harry hearing voices, his friends suspicion of Malfoy, his own feelings about it, Mel's abnormal behaviour. But in the end he felt there was little to nothing that Dumbledore could do about it, so it came as no surprise to him when he and Harry both said 'no sir' at the same time.

News of Nick and Justin being attacked spread rather quickly, and it turned out Peeves was more than happy to mention that Harry was the one found with the two victims and told anyone who would listen, which was practically everyone in the school. He neglected to mention that Andrew was there too, which caused the Jedi to have a 'quiet' word with him one night when he'd forced himself to stay up just to track down the poltergeist.

The strange fact was that people were more frightened about Nick being attacked than Justin, after-all, what could possibly harm someone who was already dead?

Sure enough a lot of people who had decided to stay for the holidays had stampeded to get on the train home instead, it was clear that people were starting to panic. Harry seemed glad that people weren't going to be around, he could use a break from all the whispering and fear he was getting from people.

Fred and George however were finding all the suspicion towards Harry hilarious. They took to walking before Harry in the corridors shouting things like, "Make way for the heir of Slytherin, seriously evil wizard coming through!" clearly making a mockery of what people were saying about Harry behind his back, it was good to see Harry fighting the urge to at least smile at their antics.

Percy wasn't pleased though, and neither was Ginny. In fact, Percy was getting more and more aggravated at the twins, and one time when Fred asked Harry loudly who he was planning to attack next, Ginny nearly burst into tears.

The interesting thing was how Malfoy seemed to be getting more agitated whenever the twins would make fun of it all.

"It's because he's bursting to say it's really him, he doesn't like you getting credit for his dirty work," Ron said knowingly.

"( _I'm not so sure,)"_ Andrew thought to himself, getting a feel from Malfoy he wasn't expecting.

"Not for long, the Polyjuice potion is nearly finished, we'll be able to get the truth out of him any day now." Hermione explained, looking pleased.

"Sadly you'll have to go on with this plan without me, I'm off back to the temple tomorrow for our holiday celebrations." Andrew responded with slumped shoulders.

When Andrew and Mel got off the train after the New Year, she seemed a little more like herself, Andrew pegged it down to a work overload since he himself had spent most of his first year juggling between school work and Jedi training, not to mention that this year he had added Quidditch practise to the list.

The shocking thing was that nearly as soon as he had walked through the doors to the Great Hall, people were acting worried already, as it turned out, Hermione had had an accident during the holidays and was still in the hospital wing.

When Andrew asked Harry and Ron about their caper with the potion, they explained everything, including how Hermione's hair turned out to be from a cat instead of a human, so instead of turning into Millicent Bulstrode, she grew fur, cat ears and a tail.

But of course, when people heard that she was in the hospital they instantly feared she'd been attacked. Andrew had to try hard not to laugh when he went to visit her. "I'm sorry, Hermione but I have to try this," he reached out a hand and rubbed his friend's cheek, having to bite his lip when she let out an instinctive purr, "wow, so soft."

"Oh," Hermione was about to tell him off but hissed at him instead.

"Okay, okay I'll stop, sorry Hermione," Andrew took a seat as Ron put a pile of books on her bedside table after the first day of lessons, "any ideas on how long you're going to be here?"

"Well the fur's starting to come off and the ears and tail have gone too, so maybe another week at the most." She answered, they briefly talked about how their investigation was going nowhere and then left, bumping into Jax as soon as they walked out of the hospital.

"Satisfied it wasn't Draco?" he asked.

"How did you.." Ron started.

"Skillz," Jax dead-panned.

"You got any ideas?" Andrew asked, crossing his arms and leaning back against a stone wall.

"No, I just came to tell you, you've got Draco all wrong," Jax answered, turning to leave.

"Why not enlighten us?" Harry asked with a little scorn. Jax stopped and turned his head a little.

"Think of him, as that kid who _thinks_ he should behave like his friends and his parents, but _wishes_ he could be like decent people."

"I've had that impression for about ten months now," Andrew answered coolly, before adding, "how do you know about it?.

"He tells me things he can't tell Crabbe, Goyle or pretty much any other Slytherin, since there's every chance it'll get back to his abusive, father." And with that Jax walked away.

"Hmm, knowing that, it's a little difficult not to feel sorry for him." Andrew mused as they started heading for their common room.

"You didn't see the look on his face when he showed us that newspaper clipping," Ron spat, Harry explained that while they were in the Slytherin common room, Malfoy had shown them a clipping from The Daily Prophet, saying that Ron's Dad was facing an enquiry at work because they had discovered his flying car, and how Malfoy was sneering about how Mr Weasley should snap his wand and go live with Muggles.

"Can I point out one thing you're missing there guys?" Andrew asked and they both looked at him. "He wasn't talking to _you_ ," they looked at him like he had grown an extra head and Andrew slapped the backs of theirs. "Hello? He was talking to _Crabbe_ and _Goyle_!"

And that's when they realised what he and Jax were saying, if Malfoy had been talking to them and not his friends, he might have been acting differently. "He's not a bad actor then," Harry commented.

"But he wouldn't talk to us for..." Ron was interrupted by Filch howling in rage on the floor above, the three boys went to investigate and found a fresh puddle of water on the site of the first attack, they realised it was flooding out of Myrtle's bathroom and went inside to see what the problem was.

Myrtle was crying more than usual, the walls and floor were soaked and the whole place was flooded.

"Myrtle?" Andrew called cautiously.

"Who's that?" Myrtle gurgled from a nearby U-bend "Come to throw something else at me?"

"Somebody threw something at you?" Andrew said angrily before calming down. "Who? Did you get a look at them?"

"No I didn't," she answered, floating through a stall, tears streaming down her face, Andrew used the Force to pull her into a hug.

"Tell me what happened," Andrew said while gently rubbing her back.

"I don't know, I was just sitting in the U-bend, thinking about death when it fell through the top of my head," she sniffled and pointed "It's over there, it got washed out."

"Sounds like it might have been an accident, someone trying to hide something and didn't know you were there." Andrew told her consolingly.

Harry went and picked up what turned out to be a book, after Ron had a little rant about books his Dad had confiscated and how books can be dangerous.

Andrew and Myrtle separated slowly and walked/floated over to Harry. "What can you tell us Watson?" he asked, pretending to smoke a pipe.

Harry rolled his eyes. "It's a diary, it's fifty years old, and belonged to … 'T. M. Riddle," he answered, reading what he could from the cover.

"Hang on, I know that name," Andrew said with certainty. "He got an award for special services to the school fifty years ago, Filch made me shine his bloody trophy about ten times in detention, wanted it to have a _perfect_ shine."

Harry pried the pages open and noticed they were blank, leaving Ron to wonder, out loud, why someone would want to throw it away, Harry looked at the back and noticed it was bought in a Muggle newsagents.

"Must've been a Muggle-born, he bought this on Vauxhall Road," he pointed out.

Ron tried to say it was useless but Harry put it in his pocket instead.

That night Andrew chose to meditate in the common room after everyone had gone to bed, he had the same vision he had in the hyper meditation room back in the summer, only this time it was a little clearer, he saw Jax there as well and he thought he recognised the saber that attacked the three of them. The vision freaked him out so much this time that he was brought out of it when a vase shattered against the wall.

Breathing heavily, Andrew pulled out his Hovercam and pressed the call button, a screen popped out of the side when Dumbledore eventually answered, his face appearing on the screen.

"Good evening Andrew, I'm sorry I took so long, I had quite forgotten about this little gadget of yours, what can I help you with?"

"I'm not sure if you can Professor," Andrew answered, leaning back against the sofa behind him. "What do you know about Jedi meditation and premonitions?"

"Not much I am afraid, but perhaps if you told me what it is that you have seen, I might be able to interpret it for you."

So Andrew told him what he had seen, the dark room, the snake statues, the bearded face statue, everything he could describe until the vision broke. Dumbledore was silent for a few moments once Andrew was finished. A quill, drawing or writing, was next to him as he sat in thought, his fingers pressed together under his chin, having leaned his screen against a pile of books to his left.

When the quill stopped moving, Dumbledore held up the parchment, "Is this the bearded statue you saw?" he asked, it was completely identical and Andrew said as much. "That is a depiction of Salazar Slytherin, it seems to me that this vision of yours, shows yourself, Harry and Mr Starr all locating the Chamber of Secrets. I cannot say that I relish the thought of the three of you in such danger, however I fear that I am at this moment powerless to prevent anything," Dumbledore sighed. "I have my suspicions about these attacks Andrew, but I have no proof, without such, I could only be seen as a ranting old man."

Andrew sighed. "Sucks when you _know_ the facts, but they're so crazy and whacked out that they're completely unbelievable."

Dumbledore nodded in agreement before looking at Andrew directly. "I need you to promise me something Andrew," Andrew nodded for him to continue. "Do not allow Harry to go anywhere without you, at least until this mystery is solved."

"You have my word Professor," Andrew promised before letting out a yawn, causing Dumbledore to chuckle and order him to bed.

Hermione left the hospital wing, completely cured, at the start of February, at which point the boys showed her the diary and explained how they found it.

"It's so nice how you're trying to help Myrtle, Andrew, she's a lot easier to talk to than she used to be," Hermione said when he mentioned the hug he'd given her.

"She just needs a lot of TLC," Andrew responded, Ron looked confused and he explained. "Tender Love and Care."

When Harry pulled out the diary to show her, Hermione snatched it out of his hands. "Oooh, it might have hidden powers," she said enthusiastically while looking at it closely.

"Well if it has, it's hiding them pretty damn well," said Ron, adding with sarcasm, "maybe it's shy." he shook his head. "I still don't know why you don't chuck it Harry."

"I'd like to know why someone _did_ try to chuck it, what did Riddle do to earn his award?" Harry bit back.

"Could've been anything," Ron started to answer, but Andrew cut in.

"Only way to know would be to ask the person to gave him the award, but considering it was fifty years ago, most of the teachers working here back then will probably be dead by now."

Hermione and Harry then clicked onto the fact that Malfoy had said the chamber was opened fifty years ago, that the diary was fifty years old, and that Riddle was given an award for services to the school fifty years ago.

"So you think that Riddle caught the heir?" Andrew asked.

"Makes sense, this book could possibly tell us everything, who the heir is, where the chamber is, how to open it. We don't know who exactly, but we can all think of someone who would want _that_ sort of information to disappear," Hermione answered.

"That's a _brilliant_ theory Hermione, except for one _tiny_ problem," Ron started patronisingly. "Yhe bloody thing's blank!"

Hermione simply said it might be invisible ink, and started trying magic and various stationary to get letters to appear, when it didn't work Ron again insisted that Riddle just got a diary and couldn't be bothered to write in it.

But Harry still kept it, the reason why was unknown to anyone, including himself. Every now and again, Andrew would see Harry pick up the diary and flick through the pages, like he himself would with a novel he just couldn't put down because whenever he tried something new and interesting would happen in the story.

They went to the trophy room to examine Riddle's award, and also found him on a list of Head Boys.

As the next couple of weeks went on, people started to cheer up a little, there had been no new attacks and the Mandrakes were coming along nicely, it seemed that the heir of Slytherin was starting to lose their nerve, but as soon as that thought entered his head, Andrew frowned thoughtfully.

"Something the matter?" Mel asked as she and Ginny walked past, seeing him frowning at nothing in particular.

"Just something that's bothering me, it _might_ be a coincidence," Andrew started.

"Well I _know_ you don't believe in those," Mel giggled.

"Hence me frowning," he gave them a half-smile.

"So what's up?" Ginny asked.

"I don't think these attacks are over, I can't explain right now," Andrew then wondered off, leaving the girls to look at each other fearfully.

It was February the fourteenth, Lockhart had promised a little morale booster to help everyone forget the events from the last term. He'd decorated the Great Hall for Valentine's Day.

Not only that, but he also arranged for a dozen annoyed dwarfs to play cupids, complete with wings and harps, and deliver people's Valentines to each other.

Andrew was fighting not to laugh having seen the dwarfs outfits, but when Lockhart suggested that the other teachers get involved he had to duck under the table.

"Why not ask Professor Snape to show you how to whip up a Love Potion! And while you're at it, Professor Flitwick know more about Entrancing Enchantments than any wizard I've _ever_ met, the sly old dog!"

Andrew was laughing so hard at the look on Snape's face that no actual sound was coming out of his mouth. "Please tell me you're not one of the forty-six?" Ron pleaded to Hermione, referring to Lockhart's announcement of how many Valentines he had received already.

"Whoo," Andrew let out a loud sigh once he'd calmed himself down. "I personally don't see the point of sending a Valentine."

"How come?" Hermione asked, thankful for a slight change of subject.

"Well, what's the point of telling someone how you feel if you're not going to tell them it's you feeling it? The whole point of a Valentine is for you to sign it 'from your Valentine'. So the person you've sent it to doesn't know it's you, cultivate some courage and shout it to the world!" people were staring at Andrew now, since he was shouting. "It's more embarrassing but also more meaningful."

Shaking their heads, Harry and Ron lead the way to their first class. True to his word, Lockharts dwarfs went barging into classes all day to deliver Valentines, some were card, one or two were vocal. The teachers were annoyed every time this happened, the students on the receiving end of gruff deliveries weremassively embarrassed.

Inevitably it had to happen, the Gryffindors were making their way to charms when a dwarf shouted "Oy, you! 'Arry Potter!" it turned out he had a musical Valentine to deliver, Harry tried to run, the dwarf grabbed his bag, Harry tried to yank his back, it ripped, his wand, parchment, quill and Riddle's diary fell to the floor and Harry's ink pot smashed over the lot.

Having grabbed everything and stuffed it back into what was left of his bag, Harry tried to run again, only to be tackled to the floor by the dwarf who sat on Harry and sang to him, with Draco Malfoy, Percy Weasley and a group of first years, including Ginny, all listening to _every_ word.

Malfoy, still crying with laughter, picked up Riddle's diary, he was about to open it to read it aloud, not realising it wasn't Harry's, when it flew out of his hand and into Harry's. Andrew, Mel and Jax all stared at Harry in shock, knowing he'd just called the diary to his hand in the same way any of them would call their lightsaber.

"D-do you _realise_ what you just _did_?" Hermione hissed in Harry's ear.

Harry wasn't listening to her, instead he was being held back by Andrew when Malfoy took his annoyance out on Ginny by saying "I don't think Potter liked your Valentine!"

"Leave it, let's go!" Andrew grabbed Harry's shoulders and turned him around, he intended to have a talk with Harry later about using the Force, looking over his shoulder just in time to see Jax smack the back of Malfoy's head discretely.

Harry noticed something once they got to Charms, he pointed out to Andrew that unlike the rest of his books and parchment, the diary was dry of any ink, he would have told Hermione and Ron too, but Ron was having wand trouble again and Hermione was trying to help him.

Later, Andrew and Hermione were helping Ron with his homework, when Ron asked where Harry was, Andrew volunteered to go check the library and when he got back he found Harry, Ron and Hermione sitting on a sofa in the common room, at which point Harry started his story again, apparently if you wrote in Riddle's diary, _Riddle_ wrote back.

Riddle did in fact catch the heir fifty years ago, he had shown Harry his own memory. The school was going to be closed because a student had been killed, so Riddle decided to do something rather lose the only place that felt like a home to him. He found Hagrid trying to smuggle a large spider out of the castle, the spider ran off and Hagrid was expelled.

"I'm sorry but that's total baloney, Hagrid might like large and monstrous creatures but all Riddle proved was that he'd kept a pet that year that he wasn't allowed. There's no _way_ that he's Slytherin's heir!" Andrew ranted.

"Riddle _might_ have gotten the wrong person," Hermione tried to say diplomatically, "maybe it was some other monster that was attacking people..."

"How many monsters do you think this place can hold Hermione?" Ron asked dully.

"Did you seriously just asked that question?" Andrew dead-panned, holding up a fist he starting to count on his fingers. "Fluffy, Norbert, Troll on Halloween, Troll on the way to the Philosopher's Stone, a Whomping Willow if we can count that, a Giant Squid for crying out loud! Need I go on?"

"No, you've made your point," Ron conceded.

"We always knew Hagrid had been expelled," Harry said miserably. "And the attacks must have stopped after Hagrid was kicked out. Otherwise Riddle wouldn't have gotten his award."

"Just means that the real heir was smar..." Andrew cut himself off.

"What is it?" Hermione asked, realising something was up.

"I thought it was a little suspicious," Andrew said, almost talking to himself as his eyes darted around, not really seeing anything as he put the pieces together. "We need to keep a close watch on that book!"

"Why?" Ron asked.

"Think about it, Riddle doesn't want to go live at this Muggle orphanage right? Someone's been killed and the school _will_ close if nobody is apprehended, so he finds someone to pin the blame on and we _know_ it's not Hagrid, but the attacks stop anyway," Andrew explained in a rant, "so we're left with two possibilities, one: the real heir sealed the chamber to keep people off his or her tracks,"

"And two?" Ron asked.

"You're not gonna like this possibility," Andrew warned.

"Go on," Hermione urged.

"What if it was Riddle?"

"That's insane!" Harry almost shouted.

"Maybe, but I obviously have nothing to prove it, I'd ask the book but – well, if you were the heir of Slytherin, you'd just killed someone and I asked you if it was you, would you _really_ tell me you'd done it?" Andrew almost smirked at the irony of his own question.

"Okay, you've got a point," Harry answered, then he quoted something Andrew had said a few months ago. "'We have no evidence, only a theory that happens to fit all the facts we know'"

Andrew smiled. "Exactly, so for now, just keep an eye on that book, if someone gets attacked while it's in our possession, then we know I'm wrong.

"We … we could ask Hagrid," Hermione suggested tentatively.

"That'd be a cheerful visit," Ron said exasperatedly.

"Yes, 'Evening Hagrid, have you by any chance set something loose on the castle this year?'" Andrew said, impersonating Ron's voice.

"Hey!"

"I would like to think we could be a bit more tactful than _that_ ," Hermione snapped.

"I think we should stick with Andrew's idea," Harry started, getting up and heading for the boys dormitory staircase "and if anyone else gets attacked, _then_ we know Andrew's wrong about Riddle and we go ask Hagrid."

As the weeks went on, Harry wasn't hearing his disembodied voice any more, making them all hopeful that they wouldn't need to question Hagrid about why he was expelled and fearful of the diary that Harry was keeping in his bag.

It was now four months since the last attack on Nick and Justin, Peeves had stopped singing 'Potter you rotter', with some convincing from Andrew, and even Ernie McMillan was starting to get over his own suspicions, Justin getting attacked somewhat made him suspect Harry all over again.

The best news came when the Mandrakes started throwing a swinging party in Greenhouse three, because this meant they were one step away from being fully matured, the last stage was when they started trying to move into each other's pots, or so Professor Sprout told them after class when the party occurred.

The more important thing that all the second years had to think about at the moment was which subjects they wanted to take from their third year onwards, something that Hermione was taking _very_ seriously.

"This could affect our entire future," She told Harry and Ron.

"She's right, this is sort of similar to something the Order does," Andrew stated as he poured over the list of possible subjects.

"What's that?" Harry asked.

"Well," Andrew started, putting down his quill, "when a Padawan passes the trials and becomes a Knight, if they're not needed for an assignment urgently, they get given the option to go abroad to study something they've never had the chance to before." He laughed for a second. "One chap, Master Cooper's nephew, Daniel, he wanted to study Forensics."

"What's that?" Ron asked.

"It's what Muggles use to solve crimes, they find evidence for the police to use in court, fingerprints and things like that," Hermione explained without looking up.

"Exactly, so he was sent to Washington to spend a few months with an investigative team of Special Agents with NCIS." Andrew told them.

 **A/N I don't own N.C.I.S but I'm a HUGE fan.**

"What the heck is that?" Hermione asked, finally looking up.

"Naval Criminal Investigative Service," recited Andrew, grinning at the perplexed looks on his friend's faces, "I know, I hadn't heard of them either, they're basically to the American navy what the police are to everyone else." he giggled again.

"What?" Harry asked, starting to grin.

"The Pathologist who worked there, a Pathologist is someone who performs an autopsy and finds out how you died," Andrew explained to Ron as he guessed the Wizarding world didn't use Pathology to determine causes of death. "He was a Scott, his name was," he cleared his throat "Dr Donald 'Ducky' Mallard."

Hermione dropped her quill as she laughed, "You're kidding!"

"No I'm _really_ not, I met him once, he's a walking trivia machine. I'd bumped into him in the middle of a protection detail assignment." he explained. "Daniel was there, carrying bags, and 'Ducky' told me a piece of trivia," Andrew stopped his story long enough to pull out his lightsaber in his right hand, activating it. "'Do you know why we drive on the left side of the road in Britain?'"

Having heard his lightsaber switch on the entire common room turned to watch him, standing in front of the fireplace, Mel rolled her eyes and turned back to her list, she'd heard this story before.

Everyone shrugged but Fred chose to speak, "No idea, why?"

Smiling, Andrew continued. "'It dates back to medieval times, most of the world was, and still _is_ right handed, so two men passing on horseback would take the left side of the road so that they could take a swing at each other with their swords," he illustrated by swinging his lightsaber at an imaginary passing horse rider, causing the room to rumble with laughter.

"How did we get onto this subject?" Harry asked once he stopped laughing.

"I have no idea, but speaking of subjects..." Hermione started.

"Hang on, before we do, why is it so funny that this guy is called Mallard?" Ron asked

"A Mallard is a breed of duck," she answered.

"Yeah," Andrew added, sitting back down, "apparently he was sent to school once by his mother on a non-uniform day, dressed in the same outfit Disney's Donald Duck wears, since then he's been called 'Ducky'. But let's get back to picking subjects."

"I just want to give up potions," said Harry.

"We can't," Hermione answered.

"It says at the bottom here, 'All students must continue any subjects they are already taking!'" Andrew pointed out.

"Then how come Potions is an option?" Ron asked.

"Extra Potions for the really committed?" Andrew responded with a shrug.

Percy advised Divination and Muggle Studies, but Andrew pointed that with him and Hermione being Muggle-Borns and Harry being raised by Muggles, Muggle Studies was a pointless subject to take.

Andrew elected for Divination since it might help him hone his ability with meditation premonitions and Care of Magical Creatures because he loved animals, he was interested in others but didn't want to overload himself.

Even though Gryyfindor's next Quidditch match was against Hufflepuff, Wood wasn't letting up on the training, the Gryffindor team practised every day after dinner, but the pitch and weather were getting drier so Harry and Andrew went up to bed the evening before the match in good spirits, at least until they got to their dorm.

The place was a mess, Harry's bed had been ransacked, his mattress was on the floor, his pillows had been ripped, the feathers were everywhere, his cloak had been torn apart and his trunk had been overturned. Someone had been looking for something.

"( _Harry the diary!_ )" Andrew almost shouted but Neville was there, promising he had no idea who had done it.

Harry dived into the room while Andrew calmed Neville down, Dean, Seamus and Ron all walked in and started to help tidy things up while Andrew sat Neville down on his bed and started to help.

"( _Riddle's diary is gone!_ )" Harry told Ron and Andrew with anguish.

"( _But … only a Gryffindor could have … nobody else knows the password!_ )" Ron spluttered mentally.

"( _Exactly, our list of suspects is short … but do either of you want to go asking that particular question?_ )" Andrew asked, the others shook their heads, Dean, Seamus and Neville taking that motion to mean they weren't happy with the mess someone had caused.

At breakfast the next morning, Andrew's fears came to fruition. Harry heard the voice again, when he told them he'd heard it and asked if they had, they hadn't, Hermione clapped a hand to her forehead and ran off to the library having just realised something.

The boys went to Gryffindor Tower, grabbed Harry and Andrew's brooms and made their way down to the Quidditch pitch, but just as the match was about to kick off, Professor McGonagall came running onto the pitch with a large purple megaphone and announced that the match was cancelled and that all students were to make their way back to their common rooms where heads of house would give more information.

She beckoned Harry and Andrew to come with her, when Ron managed to detach himself from the crowd to join his friends, McGonagall told him to come too, she lead them back up to the castle and up to the hospital wing.

"I warn you, this may come as something of a shock," she started, "there has been another attack … another _double_ attack."

They entered the hospital and found Madam Pomfrey leaning over a fifth year Ravenclaw student, and in the bed next to her was …

"HERMIONE!" the three boys shouted and nearly knocked Professor McGonagall over to get to her bedside.

"They were found near the library," Professor McGonagall explained, "I don't suppose any of you could explain this? It was on the floor next to them."

Harry, Ron and Andrew turned to see her holding a small circular mirror. They all shook their heads, Ron was clutching Hermione's hand, clearly on the verge of tears.

"I'll escort you back to your common room, I need to address the students in any case."

"All students will return to their house common rooms by six o'clock in the evening. No student is to leave the dormitories after that time. You will be escorted to each lesson by a teacher. No student is to use the bathroom unaccompanied by a teacher. All further Quidditch training and matches are to be postponed. There will be no more evening activities." Professor McGonagall read aloud to her house.

She warned her students that if the culprit wasn't caught then it was likely that the school would be closed, she all but begged anyone with any information to come forward, and then she left.

Harry, Ron and Andrew sat in the corner while the rest of the common room united in blaming Slytherin as a whole.

"Riddle's diary goes missing and the next day there's an attack?" Andrew asked, leaving the accusation hanging in the air.

"I'm with you mate, it's too much to be a coincidence," Ron answered.

"We need to go and talk to Hagrid," Harry said, earning a quizzical look from the other two "Look I agree with you two, but right now, Hagrid's the only one we can go to easily who was there fifty years ago."

"What about Dumbledore?" Andrew asked.

"Well OK, he was _around_ fifty years ago, but was he teaching?" Ron asked.

"Yes he was, Riddle bumped into him shortly after he finished talking to Professor Dippet," Harry explained.

"We should try Hagrid first," Andrew suggested, "Dumbledore's no doubt seriously busy right now, probably doesn't have time to listen to three second-years and their suspicions about a student who got an award fifty years ago."

"So how are we going to do it, McGonagall said we have to stay in our tower," Ron pointed out.

"I think," said Harry with a grin. "It's time to get my Dad's invisibility cloak out again."

"And I'll run on ahead to make sure the coast is clear." Andrew said, getting up.

It turned out to be more difficult than expected, for one they had to wait until Seamus, Dean and Neville had stopped talking about the Chamber of Secrets and fallen asleep, and then, after scanning with the Force to see if they could even get out of the portrait hole, they found the place crawling.

So Andrew darted back upstairs and grabbed his 'Spider-Gear' so he could move along the ceilings out of sight. He would crawl along one corridor, watch for patterns and tell Harry telepathically who was where and when to make a dash to what points to avoid detection.

When they got out the main entrance they got the fright of their lives.

"Evening," Said Jax, Harry and Ron thought they might slip away while Andrew was quietly telling Jax off for the heart attack. "You might as well lose the cloak, impressive as it is, there's nobody out here but us."

They took the cloak off and Andrew asked. "What do you want Jax?"

"To make sure the school doesn't close, I'm guessing you're doing the same, much as I hate to work with anyone, especially a Jedi, I think we'll be more effective working together." Jax answered.

"Your mother would be proud," Andrew responded, when Jax bristled he explained, "to see you acting so mature."

Jax shrugged the compliment off. "What do we know so far?" They started walking towards Hagrid's hut as they told him about Riddle's diary, the memory Harry had seen, Andrew's suspicions over the circumstances and that the day after someone stole the diary from Harry's room, there was another attack. "Sounds like the heir might be a Gryffindor."

"That or Riddle was," Andrew answered.

"That's possible, I've heard about this guy in passing, the Slytherin's are talking about how he stopped the school closing fifty years ago, Riddle _was_ a Slytherin," Jax explained "but … doesn't explain how his diary got into Gryffindor Tower, or how it got stolen, what does that diary have to do with this anyway?!"

"I don't know how … yet … but I think that diary might be possessing someone, facts lean towards a Gryffindor like you said, but," Andrew sighed, "I've only got theories." he finished, repeating Dumbledore's words.

They had just arrived at Hagrid's door when he said that and Jax nodded. "Theories that make too much sense to be just that." he said as Harry knocked.

Soon as Harry stopped knocking, Hagrid flung the door open and pointed a crossbow in his face, Fang the boar hound barking behind him.

"Oh," he said, lowering his weapon, Jax putting his away as well, and staring at them, "what're you," he paused, noticing Jax there, "four doin' here?"

"What's that for?" Harry asked, pointing at the crossbow as they stepped inside.

"Nothin' … nothin'," Hagrid muttered, "I've been expectin' … doesn' matter … sit down, I'll make tea."

He then proceeded to nearly put the fire out and smash the tea pot before Andrew made him sit down too.

"Hagrid are you alright?" he asked.

"Did you hear about Hermione?" Harry added.

"Oh, I heard, all righ'," Hagrid responded, sounding close to tears. He started pouring mugs of hot water, but Andrew and Jax declined.

"Mint tea drinker," Andrew said as he pointed at himself.

"Coffee," Jax grunted.

So Hagrid only poured two mugs and then placed a slab of fruitcake on the table when there was a knock on the door, Harry and Ron ducked under the cloak again and Andrew and Jax slipped out the back door, leaving it open a crack.

Dumbledore stepped into the house, followed by a man in a bowler hat.

"Headmaster, Minister," Hagrid greeted.

"Bad business Hagrid," The Minister said in clipped tones, Andrew caught a glimpse of him, he looked like Churchill and talked like Chamberlain, "very bad business. Had to come. Four attacks on Muggle-borns. Things have gone far enough. Ministry's got to act."

"I never," said Hagrid, "you know I never, Professor Dumbledore, sir..." he was sounding desperate.

"I want it perfectly understood, Cornelius, that Hagrid has my full confidence," Andrew and Jax heard Dumbledore say.

"I had a feeling this would happen," Jax whispered, "soon as you told me about him being expelled I figured they'd come for him."

Andrew nodded and kept listening.

"Hagrid's record is against him." The Minister was saying. "Ministry's got be seen to be doing _something_ – the school governors have been in touch."

"Yet again, Cornelius, I tell you that taking Hagrid away will _not_ help in the slightest," Dumbledore sounded like a man who was growing tired of repeating the same thing to a five-year-old child about a hundred times.

"You've got to see it from my point of view Albus," said The Minister "I'm under a lot of pressure. Got to be seen to be doing something. If it turns out it wasn't Hagrid, he'll be back and no more said. But I've got to take him."

"Take me?" said Hagrid, sounding panicked now. "Take me where?"

"For a short stretch only," said The Minister, "not a punishment, Hagrid, more a precaution. If someone else is caught, you'll be let out with a full apology ..."

"Not Azkaban?" croaked Hagrid, the two Force-sensitive boys outside thought this place must be truly terrifying if it had someone like Hagrid so scared.

Before any more could be said there was another loud rap on the door. Whoever stepped in must have upset Fang because he started growling, drowning out Harry's gasp a little.

"Already here, Fudge," said a new voice before Lucius Malfoy stepped into view "Good, good ..."

"What're you doin' here?" Hagrid said furiously "Get outta my house!"

"My dear man, please believe me, I have no pleasure at all in being inside your – you call this a house?" replied Lucius Malfoy as he sneered, looking around the place.

"That's twice I've encountered this guy," Andrew whispered, "and twice he's been a total douche-bag for nogood reason."

"I'd have used the word 'prick', but you make a valid point," Jax growled.

"I simply called at the school and was told the Headmaster was here." Malfoy added.

"And what exactly did you want with me, Lucius?" Dumbledore asked, calmly.

It turned out that while Fudge was there to take Hagrid away as a suspect, Lucius was there to make Dumbledore leave, Fudge didn't like the idea, Hagrid was furious and shouting that Muggle-borns would be getting killed without Dumbledore, but Dumbledore himself was calm.

"Calm yourself Hagrid," he said, "if the governors want my removal, Lucius, I shall of course step aside."

Fudge and Hagrid again made it known they didn't like this idea, but Dumbledore never took his eyes off Lucius.

"However," Dumbledore said, slowly and clearly so that even Andrew and Jax could hear every word clearly outside, "you will find that I will only _truly_ have left this school when none here are loyal to me. You will find that help will always be given at Hogwarts to those who ask for it." And with that he surreptitiously slipped something from his sleeve into Hagrid's table.

Andrew and Jax stared at each other, both certain that that very message was aimed at them, Harry and Ron.

With that, Malfoy took Dumbledore, sneering gleefully, Fudge stood waiting for Hagrid to go ahead of him, but before he left, Hagrid had one thing to say.

"If anyone wanted ter find out some _stuff_ , all they'd have ter do would be ter follow the _spiders_. That'd lead 'em right! That's all I'm sayin'." he said before leaving. "An' someone'll need ter feed Fang while I'm away."

The door banged shut and the two boys outside slipped silently back in as the two inside dropped the invisibility cloak.

"We're in trouble now," said Ron horsely, "no Dumbledore? They might as well close the school tonight. There'll be an attack a day with him gone."

As Fang howled for his master, Andrew took charge. "Then we'll have to do our job and fix this!"

"And what exactly _is_ our job Jedi?" snapped Jax as Andrew picked up what Dumbledore had left him, the screen that connected to his Hovercam.

"Find the real culprit, 'and how do we do that?' I hear you ask, just what Hagrid said," Andrew pointed out, literally, at some spiders that were crawling up Hagrid's wall and out the window. "We follow the spiders, allons-y!"

With that he dived out the back door again, pulling out his wand and slotting it inside his saber, "Lumos!" igniting a blade of pure light and using it to find some spiders, "You coming?"

Harry and Ron leashed up Fang and followed, Jax shrugging and bringing up the rear. "What the hell, I didn't have anything better to do tonight."

By the light of Andrew lightsaber and three wands, they followed the two spiders they could see, stopping briefly at the edge of the forest, Andrew turned to Ron. "I'll understand if you want to stay here."

"That's _you_ I'm picking up?" Jax asked, looking at Ron too.

"He's scared of spiders," Harry explained, causing Jax to scoff.

"Hey you'd be scared too if …" Ron started. "I'll come with you,"

"Good man, let's go, you can explain your fear along the way, ONWARD!" Andrew cheered and set off at a brisk pace to catch up with the spiders.

"I was four, still took a teddy bear to bed at night," Ron explained, keeping his eyes firmly on Andrew's back as they walked, "Fred and George thought I was too old to be cuddling stuffed toys at that age, so to get me to stop they transfigured it into a huge great spider," he stopped and shuddered before carrying on. "I woke up to find my teddy all hairy, with eight legs, trying to crawl all over me and gnashing its huge pincers at me … I've been scared of spiders ever since."

"Heh I don't blame you, I think I would be too," Andrew responded.

"Why are we struggling with lights when you two could probably use the force to follow the spiders?" Harry asked.

"I got two words for you Potter, sensory overload," Jax answered, "there's so _much_ life here, and we're not experienced enough to ... well, it's like trying to find a specific red every-flavour bean, in a bag of red every-flavour beans."

"Right, I guess you can pick up not just the spiders, but ants too," Harry added.

"And termites, worms, hell even the trees themselves are alive in a biological sense." Andrew answered, slowing down once the two spiders they were following joined a veritable river of spiders.

"Um, has anyone else noticed that we've left the path?" Ron asked nervously.

"Now that you mention it," Harry started, "when me and Andrew got detention here last year, Hagrid said never to leave the path, oh well, too late now."

At that point, Ron screamed and caused the others to turn around, seeing Ron dangling upside down, being held by his feet, by the biggest spider any of them had ever seen.

"Oh Fulham!" Andrew shouted as Harry was grabbed and Jax went for his lightsaber. "No! Wait!" he shouted, sensing their intelligence, he deactivated his weapon and clipped it back onto his belt. "Take us to your leader." he said, holding his arms outstretched.

The spiders looking at him then calmly picked him and Jax up and started to carry the five of them along the treetops, Jax glared at Andrew and said, "I can't _believe_ you actually said that!"

"It's working isn't it?"

The four boys and Fang were put down in a clearing, none too gently, and the leader of the group started speaking, his pincers clicking with every syllable "Aragog!" he called "Aragog!"

Ahead of them, inside a domed web, came an even bigger spider, there were greying hairs on his body and all eight of his eyes were milky white, he was blind.

"What is it?" he asked, clicking his pincers like the rest of his kind.

"Men!" Shouted the one that caught Harry.

"Is it Hagrid?" Aragog asked.

"Strangers!" Shouted the one that carried Jax.

"Kill them, I was sleeping," Aragog commanded, turning to walk away.

"We're friends of Hagrid's," called Harry, getting to his feet. Aragog stopped and turned around slowly.

"Hagrid has never sent men into our hollow before," he said slowly.

"He's been taken away," Andrew started, getting to his feet, "they're saying he's the one behind attacks on students, but we know he's not. We hoped you could help us, perhaps you can tell us something that can help him."

"But that was years ago," shouted Aragog, clicking his pincers and getting agitated. "Years and years ago, I remember it well. That's why they made him leave the school. They believed that _I_ was the monster that dwells in what the call, the Chamber of Secrets."

"Well it's obvious from what you just said that they were wrong, can you tell us anything about what _really_ lives there?" Andrew asked, waving Jax down because he looked ready to start killing.

"Whatever it is, it's back and it's attacking people again," Harry added, having to shout over the angry clicking going on around them.

"That thing that lives in the castle, is an ancient creature that we spiders fear above all others, we do not speak its name, I have never even told Hagrid its name." Aragog responded.

" _Anything_ you can tell us might help us clear yours and Hagrid's good names, what about the one they say you killed?" Andrew was fishing for any information he could get now.

"The body of the girl was found in a bathroom, I never saw anything outside the cupboard that Hagrid raised me in." he responded as his children started to close in.

"We'll be going then," Andrew bowed and turned to leave as Aragog started to laugh. "Before you consider letting your children eat us, consider three things."

Aragog paused for a moment, "Go on."

"First, Jax there is a Sith Apprentice and won't think twice about killing, second I am a Jedi Padawan and I _will_ defend myself and my friends, and third, if we die, everything you've just told us dies to … meaning we can't clear Hagrid's name, we can't clear yours, Hagrid will be kept locked up for the rest of his life," he paused, "and the chances are that the idiot who took him away will send the entire Ministry of Magic in here after you, _and_ your children."

The spiders stopped their slow advance, turning to their parents for guidance.

After what seemed like and eternity, Aragog let out a dry chuckle. "Valid points all, Jedi, I have heard of your kind, and of the Sith, very well, go, before I change my mind!"

"Thank you for your help, we leave in peace," Andrew bowed.

The others, taking no time to question his words, followed Fang as he led them home, running for their lives. After about fifteen minutes of flat out running, Fang had led them to the path and hey stopped to catch their breath.

"I ... could have ... fought … my way out … of that," Jax panted, holding himself up by planting his hands on his knees.

"Why kill … when you can … negotiate?" Andrew panted back, taking a deep breath he asked "You two okay?"

Harry nodded and Ron all but collapsed, the fear of the situation finally getting to him as the adrenalin wore off.

"Come on buddy, on your feet, we're nearly home," taking one of his arms over his own shoulders, Andrew helped Ron back to his feet and they started walking back to Hagrid's cabin to retrieve Harry's cloak.

"So what next, Sherlock?" Jax asked.

Andrew sighed, "I don't know, all we've figured out now is what we already knew, Hagrid was framed fifty years ago."

"Follow the spiders," Ron croaked weakly.

"Cheer up Ron, it's over now, you'll never need to fear a normal spider again," Andrew laughed.

After they fetched the cloak and shut Fang in, Harry clicked his fingers. "I've got it!" he proclaimed.

"What?" Jax asked, having jumped a little.

"The girl who died, Aragog said she was found in a bathroom," Harry explained.

"Yeah?" Andrew asked.

"What if she never left?" Harry pressed.

"Oooh," Andrew slapped his own forehead. "You think it was Myrtle, well it's worth asking her, but not tonight, I think we've all had a rough night, and we need some sleep, Jax, you still with us on this?"

"I've started, so I'll finish," he smirked.

"Good, somehow we need to get to the girls' bathroom on the second floor, the one next to where Mrs Norris was attacked." Andrew explained.

"That's not going to be easy during the day, not going to be easy period." Jax responded. "Between Filch standing guard there, teachers ferrying us from class to class and all the teachers, prefects and ghosts patrolling at night, that's next to impossible!"

"Well, it wouldn't be fun if it was going to be easy," Andrew answered.

Despite himself, Jax let out a hearty laugh. "I like the way you think, Jedi."

"We'll work on the details later, right now we all need to get back to bed before someone catches us," Harry said, slipping the cloak over himself and Ron.

"You guys go ahead," they stopped and looked at Andrew as he suddenly realised he wasn't the least bit tired, "it's that time of year again, and I'm going to go offer my services to Professor McGonagall."


	8. Chambers, Heirs and Rewards

Chapter 8 – Chambers, Heirs and Rewards.

The next morning, Andrew was telling Ron, Harry, Fred and George about his run in with Professor McGonagall.

"So after Jax said he could take care of himself and ran off, I made sure Harry and Ron got back to bed and ..."

 **Flashback**

McGonagall was walking down a dark corridor on the sixth floor, calmly looking around with her wand lit, when a sudden voice made her jump a mile out of her skin.

"Ah there you are Professor, I've been looking for you for the past hour," Andrew said, she shone her wand in every direction but couldn't see him. "Up here."

She shone her wand at the ceiling to see him crouching upside down and waving before he dropped gracefully to the floor.

"Mr Payne, kindly _explain_ yourself!" she fumed. "After what I told the Gryffindors mere hours ago you have the audacity and nerve to wander the corridors at night?"

"I needed to talk with you since Professor Dumbledore wasn't in his office," Andrew started, feigning ignorance regarding the Headmaster while holding his hands up in surrender. "Do you remember last school year? Around October/November time?"

McGonagall thought for a moment, trying to recall what happened then that would require Andrew to talk to Dumbledore. After a moment it came to her, "You were unable to sleep for six weeks," she stated calmly and Andrew nodded. "I understand now but I still cannot allow you to wander the corridors, not when it's this dangerous."

"I was hoping that perhaps you could allow me to make myself usef..." Andrew started but she cut him off.

"Believe me Andrew I appreciate the offer however, regardless of your talents, you are still only a _Padawan_ , I cannot put you in such danger, now please, return to your common room where it is _safe_." she looked at him pleadingly, willing him to listen to her.

Andrew allowed his shoulders to sag before saying, "Yes Professor," and walking away, using his saber to cast 'Lumos' and light his way. Once out of sight of her he darted off, not to his common room, but to the Room of Requirement (though he told his friends it was 'his secret workshop' and refused to say where it was). Once there, he finished the design he started earlier in the year for his own car and started to build it, heading down to breakfast in the morning to meet his friends.

 **End Flashback**

"You're building a car there?" Harry asked, to which Andrew nodded since his mouth was full.

"And how, exactly, do you plan to get it home?" Ron asked.

"That's one of the functions I'm going to program into it, 'Watch' mode, you've seen how our shuttle cars transform?" Andrew answered and Ron nodded. "Well by the same method it'll be able to transform into a watch on my wrist. The only problem is that I won't have time to program and install an AI, besides which I'll need a Temple Terminal to do that, so transformations will have to be done manually for now."

"Sounds hard," Fred said, and Andrew nodded again,

"So you're planning to build a car in the next four to six weeks?" George asked.

"Yeah, so long as I can get to my workshop every night," Andrew answered as the bell rang and the teachers started rounding up their students to take them to classes.

On the way up to Transfiguration, Harry, Ron and Andrew discussed how they would find a way to get to Myrtle without being caught, telepathically of course so that nobody could overhear them and report them.

The idea was driven from their minds though when Professor McGonagall announced that they were to be having the end of year exams as normal, causing Andrew to take on a look of pure dread as a horrifying thought occurred to him.

"Um, Professor?" he asked while holding his hand up. "What if someone were to, due to facts beyond their control .."

McGonagall picked up his train of thought and answered his question "You do realise that the exams start in a fortnight?" Andrew blinked and apologised, vowing to spend some of his free time helping his friends revise.

"What about Hermione and everyone else who's been petrified?" Ron asked, holding his hand up.

"I had taken that into consideration, Mr Weasley." McGonagall answered. "The likes of poor Colin Creevey will have missed too much this year to give him a fair chance of passing, so _all_ the attack victims are being exempt from their exams this year."

"Hermione will be _furious_!" Harry joked, causing a few laughs from his classmates and a smirk from McGonagall.

Three days before the first exam, Professor McGonagall announced at dinner that the Mandrakes were ready for cutting and all the Petrified victims would be revived within the next day or two.

Ron cheerfully pointed out that it wouldn't matter that they hadn't asked Myrtle about the chamber, he'd been kicking himself ever since they realised she was the one Aragog mentioned, stating that Hermione would have all the answers when she woke up.

Just then Ginny sat next to Harry and tried to tell him something, Harry had guessed it was about the Chamber to try and coax what she wanted to say out of her, but before she could say anything, Percy came and told her to move so he could sit down and eat.

Ron told his brother off and Percy insisted that what she was about to tell them was about her walking in on him doing something personal, causing Andrew to wrinkle his nose.

"Nothing like that!" Percy half shouted. "Aren't you a bit young to have a dirty mind?"

"I'm a Jedi, Perce, I've seen things _nobody_ my age should see," Andrew explained with a slight shudder as a few gory images from his past came to mind. "I'm sorry though, I shouldn't assume."

Percy accepted the apology and then dodged Ron's question about what Ginny caught him doing by asking Harry to pass the bread rolls.

"( _If the chance comes up, I still want to talk to Myrtle,_ )" Harry thought to his friends, Andrew relaying it to Jax, who looked up from his meal and gave Andrew a confused look.

As it happened the chance came up the next day when Lockhart was taking them from his class to History of Magic. He was going on and on, yet again, about how the danger had passed, Andrew was tempted to punch him when he said Hagrid was guilty … again, and that all the security measures were unnecessary.

"I agree Sir," Harry answered, shocking Andrew and Ron, Ron so much that he dropped his books.

"Thank you Harry," Lockhart said while they waited for a group of Hufflepuffs to pass, "I mean, we teachers have quite enough to be getting on with, without walking students to classes and standing guard all night." at this point Andrew caught on, noticing how Lockhart was looking the worse for wear.

"That's right," added Ron, catching on to what Harry was doing, "why don't you leave us here, there's only one more corridor to go."

Lockhart agreed and left to 'prepare his next class', leaving Harry, Ron and Andrew free to let the rest of the class move ahead of them and dart down another passageway.

Only to get caught by none other than Professor McGonagall.

"What _are_ you three doing?" she demanded, looking livid.

Ron stammered "We were – we were … we were going to see ..."

"Hermione," Harry and Andrew answered together, causing Ron and McGonagall to look at them.

"We haven't seen her in ages Professor," Harry explained and Andrew finished.

"We thought we'd sneak into hospital and tell her she'll be back with us soon, after-all they say if you talk to a coma patient it helps them recover."

She looked ready to explode, but then softened and told them to go ahead, she went very teary-eyed as she gave them permission and said she'd explain to Professor Binns where they were.

So with no choice but to go to the hospital wing, that's where they went, Madam Pomfrey allowed them in, not that she saw the point, and the three of them stood around Hermione's bed, not really knowing what to do or say.

That was when Harry noticed that Hermione's right hand was scrunched up around something, getting the others to pry her fingers open, Harry fished out a torn page from a library book.

After smoothing it out, Harry read the page aloud, but quietly so Madam Pomfrey couldn't hear. It was describing a Basilisk, the King of Serpents, how long they live, how big they can grow, how one was born, its huge, venomous fangs, the fact that it could kill by eye contact.

"Spiders flee before the Basilisk, for it is their mortal enemy, and the Basilisk flees only from the crowing of a rooster, which is fatal to it." Harry finished.

"Oh. Holy. Yoda!" Andrew whispered. "This was the evidence we needed to make all the pieces fit."

"How so?" Ron asked.

"I'm sure when we ask her, Myrtle will tell us that the last thing she saw were a pair of eyes staring at her, Spiders flee before it, no wonder if it can kill by looking, a spider has a lot of eyes. Someone's been killing Hagrid's roosters, because their crow would kill the monster of Slytherin." Andrew explained.

"And the heir of Slytherin is the only one who can control the monster, because it's a snake and they use Parseltongue," Harry finished. "That's why I've been hearing a voice all year, I've been hearing this Basilisk!"

"But how's a ruddy great snake gonna get around without anyone seeing it?" Ron breathed as he caught on.

"Hermione's answered that too," Harry answered, pointing to a word she'd written on the page 'pipes'.

"It's using the plumbing?" Ron asked.

"And a thousand galleons to the man who can guess where it comes out," Andrew said sarcastically.

Ron and Harry gasped "Myrtle's bathroom!" they said.

"Wait, if this thing kills by looking at people, how come nobody's died?" Andrew asked, still missing that one piece, he started pacing while tapping his chin.

Harry thought about it. "Colin was found looking through his camera," he said, thinking of the night he spent in hospital, "the film inside was all smoking and ruined, the snake must have looked at him through the lens."

"Which killed the film and petrified him, that works, keep going," Andrew answered, still pacing.

Ron clicked his fingers and pointed at Justin and Nick. "Justin must have seen it through Nick, Nick got the full brunt but he's already dead, so they were both petrified!"

"Hermione and the Ravenclaw Prefect were both found with a mirror, Hermione already figured everything out and probably warned the other girl … they were using the mirror to look around corners!" Andrew explained, snapping his fingers.

"That just leaves Mrs Norris," Ron stated.

"That's simple," Harry answered, "Andrew stepped in a puddle when he took a close look at her hanging there, she must have seen a reflection in the water."

"So we've figured it out, what do we do now?" Ron asked.

"We go straight to McGonagall," Andrew answered.

"We'll go to the staff room," Harry added, getting up, "she'll be there in ten minutes, it's nearly break."

Andrew sat in one of the chairs while Harry and Ron paced the floor in the staff room. "How can you be so calm when we're so much closer to catching the heir?" Ron asked Andrew incredulously.

"Simple, my training,"

However, they all got a shock when instead of the break time bell, Professor McGonagall's voice filled the entire castle.

"All students are to return to their common rooms, all staff report to the staff room, _immediately_ please!"

"You two, hide in there!" Andrew pointed to a nearby wardrobe as he tapped the side of his head. "Tell me what goes on." and with that he dived out the door to hide elsewhere.

He quickly found a closet that Filch used to store mops and ducked inside, listening for Harry, who told him that two students had been taken by the monster to the Chamber of Secrets, that the heir had left another message right below the first one 'Their skeletons will lie in the Chamber for ever'.

"( _It's Ginny and Mel!_ )" Harry cried out mentally, causing Snape to glance briefly at the wardrobe, just as Lockhart barged into the room.

Harry kept listening, groaning in his mind. "( _Oh no, they're sending Lockhart after them,_ )"

After all the teachers had agreed to send the students home the next day, Harry and Ron met with Andrew and discussed a plan.

"Okay, you two go head Lockhart off, he said he was in his office. Warn him of what we know, I'll meet you at Myrtle's bathroom," and with that, Andrew took off, sending a message for Jax to meet him there.

He wasn't there for five minutes when Jax came skidding to a halt. "Sorry I took so long, I nearly ran into Snape on my way up."

"No problem, we've figured _everything_ out," Andrew answered, going into an explanation of everything, the Basilisk, it's abilities, weaknesses, how every spider had been making a run for it, the roosters being slaughtered because they would kill the snake and how Harry hearing voices all year suddenly made sense.

"So _that's_ what I've been hearing all year!" Jax exclaimed, causing Andrew to give him a puzzled look. "I didn't know it until Potter caused a scare at the Duelling Club, but I'm a Parselmouth too it seems."

"That might come in handy," Andrew said with a nod, "but this is less of a snake hunt and more of a rescue mission."

"How do you mean?" Jax asked as Harry, Ron and Lockhart came around the corner.

"My fellow Padawan, and Ron's little Sister, Ginny, they've both been taken to the Chamber of Secrets," Andrew explained, looking Jax dead in the eye. "You said you'd finish this, can I have your word that you'll help me get them back _alive_?"

Jax said nothing and nodded, just as Ron got close enough to speak without shouting. "This bloody coward was going to run!" he snapped.

"Turns out you were right all year Andrew, his books are stories of what _other_ Witches and Wizards have done, he's a fake!" Harry added.

"Well then Mr Lockhart it's about time you did the right and proper thing," Andrew announced, kicking the door to the bathroom open, "get in!"

When Lockhart looked like he might refuse, Jax zapped him in the arse with lightning to get him moving. Once inside, Andrew called for Myrtle who came floating out of the end stall.

"Oh, hello, what do you want?" she asked with a pleasant smile.

"I know this is probably going to be an awkward question Myrtle," Andrew started carefully, "but I need to ask you, how you died."

"Oh, nobody's ever asked me that before," she responded, looking a little flattered. "Ooh it was _dreadful_ , happened right in here in fact." She pointed to the stall she had just come out of.

"I remember it so well. I'd hidden in here because Olive Hornby was teasing me about my glasses. The door was locked and I was crying, and then I heard somebody come in. They said something strange, it sounded like a made-up language. I could tell it was a boy speaking, so I unlocked the door to tell him to go and use his own toilet when, I died."

"How?" asked Harry.

"I've no idea," she answered with a shrug, "I just remember seeing a pair of great big yellow eyes, my whole body sort of seized up and the next thing I know, I'm a ghost and Olive came in and found me and my body."

"Just like we suspected, where exactly did you see the eyes?" Andrew asked.

"Over there," Myrtle said, pointing towards the circle of sinks.

They moved over to them, Jax going to one in particular, he ignored Myrtle when she said that sink had never had running water, instead he gazed transfixed at the snake engraved on one of the taps.

"It's here," he said softly, causing Ron and Lockhart to stare at him in horror.

"English?" Andrew asked, clapping a hand on his shoulder, Jax looked at him like he was a moron.

"You speak Parseltongue too?" Harry asked him, making Jax realise why Ron and Lockhart were looking at him the way they were.

"Yes, I didn't realise it until you spoke it at the Duelling Club, but given how everyone reacted to you, I couldn't try and defend you without everyone fearing me the same way." Jax answered, not looking away from the tap.

"So it's here?" Andrew asked, blowing over the situation. Jax nodded and Harry hissed at the tap, causing the sink to sink into the floor, the mirror on the wall rose and retracted, and a grate of some sort slid out and over the sink, leaving a hole large enough for Mr Dursley to easily slide into. " _Please_ don't tell me you just said 'open sesame'!"

Harry laughed and Jax pinched the bridge of his nose and shook his head. "No you moron he just said 'open'!"

Harry crouched by the hole and looked up at his friends and Lockhart. "I'm going down there." he announced.

"We all are, but this is going first," Andrew told him, pulling the Hovercam out from inside his robes, he activated it and dropped it, pulling out the screen and piloting it remotely, monitoring how far down the pipe went, turning on the night vision as it got darker. Just as he was beginning to fear that it would be a fatal fall, the pipe levelled out, as soon as the probe left the pipe, Andrew checked the distance.

"Wow!" he exclaimed, "It's three _miles_ away from us!"

"That's some range," Jax commented, impressed, Andrew passed the screen to Harry and stepped up to the hole.

"Jax, I'll go down first, once I give the all clear, you send Lockhart down and then follow him, Harry, you and Ron wait until I tell you there's no immediate danger, alright?"

Harry nodded and Andrew took one step … and vanished.

As soon as Harry saw Andrew slide out of the other end of the pipe, he turned off the night vision, just in time for Andrew to ignite his 'Lumos' blade. The Jedi looked into the camera and announced, "All clear, send the prat down Jax."

Rather than have an argument over it, Jax just picked Lockhart up with the Force and dropped him down the hole, then leapt in after, slipping and sliding to and fro all the way down until he expertly slid out of the end of the pipe and flipped himself onto his feet, igniting his lightsaber in his classic reverse grip, please that the look on Lockharts face told him that he looked badass as always.

Leaving Lockhart to cower by the open pipe, Andrew and Jax advanced a little, looking around with what light they had available, even with Jax lighting his wand it wasn't as much as either would like. "Alright Harry, come on down." Andrew didn't dare go much further in case the Hovercam lost its signal.

Though as soon as Andrew had said it, Harry and Ron both slid out of the pipe, telling him they came down as soon as the camera feed had cut out, Andrew nodded and pocketed the two devices, Ron having returned the screen.

"Remember, any sign of movement, call it and close your eyes immediately," Harry cautioned.

They started moving slowly, the place was dead silent, until a loud, echoing crunch made them all jump and spin towards the sound, it turned out to be Ron's foot crushing a rat's skull.

They kept moving forward, watching where they were putting their feet as the ground was littered with bones, after a short while they got a good idea of what they were up against, when they found the fifty-foot-long shed skin of a snake.

At the sight of it, Lockhart collapsed, Ron ordered him to get up but Lockhart moved quicker than any of them expected him to. He grabbed Ron's wand and pointed it at them. "The adventure ends here boys!" he said triumphantly. "I shall take a sample of this skin up to the school, tell them I was too late to save the girls, and that the four of you tragically lost your minds at the sight of their mangled bodies."

"Do you actually think anyone will believe that a Sith, no offence Jax," Andrew started.

"None taken," he replied.

"Would actually be upset to see someone dead?"

"It doesn't matter, say goodbye, to your memories." Lockhart proclaimed, raising Ron's spellotaped wand "Obliviate!" he shouted, causing the wand to explode, Harry ran with his arms over his head, Ron was about to get crushed under a falling slab of rock before Andrew Force pushed him into Lockhart and caused them both to tumble to safety, then he flung himself backwards, crashing into Jax and knocking them both into Harry as a veritable wall of boulders and debris blocked the tunnel exit.

"Ron? Are you okay? RON!" Harry shouted frantically at the boulders.

"I'm alright," came Ron's muffled reply, "this git's not though, his spell backfired, he can't remember anything!" there was a thud and Andrew sensed that Lockhart was now unconscious.

Jax stepped up close to the rock and shouted "Weasley! Can you try clearing this stuff out of the way while we move on and get your Sister?" he shouted.

"Yeah I can, but listen if I don't hear back from you in an hour..." the other three got the idea and said they'd be back.

"You've got your saber right Harry?" Andrew asked.

"Yes," he answered, pulling it out and activating the green blade, Andrew nodded and they moved on, the three different coloured blades humming in unison.

They rounded one last bend, in front of them was a solid wall with two entwined snakes carved into it, the snakes eyes were made of emeralds. Harry and Jax looked at each other, nodded and hissed in unison, causing the snaked to unravel themselves and the wall to open smoothly.

"Gents, welcome to the Chamber of Secrets," Andrew muttered, Jax shook his head again as he had used the tour guide voice from the Jurassic Park film, and they walked in.

As they walked down the chamber, flanked by statues of snakes on either side of them, Andrew and Jax both said eerily at the same time, "I've been here before." then they looked at each other.

"Premonition?" Andrew asked, Jax nodded.

"Keep your heads on a swivel," he said seriously, which told Andrew that the Sith's visions ended the same way his own had.

They proceeded down the hall, keeping an eye out for their scale-coated friend, their eyes narrowed and ready to shut at the smallest sign of movement. As they neared the end of the chamber, the face of Salazar Slytherin came into view.

"Well _there's_ a man with a high opinion of himself," Jax thought aloud as he looked up towards the roof of the chamber, seeing nothing.

"Ginny!" Harry called out, dropping his wand, deactivating his blade and kneeling beside the unconscious girl. "Ginny! Don't be dead! Please don't be dead!" he tried shaking her shoulders to wake her up, while Andrew crouched near her and felt for a pulse, for some reason he could feel her pulse but not sense her presence.

"Well she's alive, but I think she's fading, I can't sense her," he explained, beginning to wonder where Mel was.

"Ginny, please wake up!" Harry called.

"She won't wake," a soft voice said, causing Andrew to reignite his lightsaber, it's blue glow lighting up a face that bore a striking resemblance to Jax, albeit a few years older.

Harry whirled around, seeing the tall, black-haired boy who was leaning against the nearest pillar, watching them. He was strangely blurred around the edges, but Harry recognised him instantly. "Tom? Tom Riddle?"

Riddle nodded, not taking his eyes off the four before him.

"What do you mean she won't wake?" Jax demanded, getting over his shock at the sight of his 'dead ringer'.

"She's not..." Harry started, looking back down at Ginny.

"She's still alive," Riddle answered, "but only just."

Harry turned back and stared at Riddle, he had been at Hogwarts fifty years ago, and yet here he was, with a misty glow around him, not a day over sixteen. "Are you a ghost?" he asked.

"A memory," Riddle answered quietly. "Preserved in a diary for fifty years."

"(I got a _bad_ feeling about this,)" Andrew thought to himself as he and Jax both tensed.

In his worry over Ginny, Harry had completely forgotten about their shared suspicious about Riddle's diary, the very diary that was laying next to Ginny's body. "You've got to help us Tom," he said, trying to lift Ginny up, "we've got to get her out of here, there's a Basilisk..." he managed to half lift Ginny from the floor, "I don't know where it is, but it could be along any moment."

Riddle hadn't moved, neither had Andrew or Jax, just as Harry went to grab his wand, it appeared in Riddle's hand, and he began twirling it in his fingers, when Harry thanked him and reached out for his wand, Riddle just smiled and kept twirling the wand idly.

"Listen," Harry growled from the effort of lifting Ginny, his knees sagging under the dead weight, " _we've got to go!_ If the Basilisk comes..."

"It won't come until it is called," Riddle cut him off coolly. Harry lowered Ginny to the ground, unable to carry her any longer.

"I don't know what that's supposed to mean, but give Harry his wand back!" Andrew commanded, pointing his saber threateningly at Riddle.

Riddle's smile broadened. "But he won't be needing it," he said calmly, the others stared at him, before any of them could say anything he spoke again. "I've waited a long time for this, Harry Potter. For the chance to see you. To speak to you."

"Look," snapped Jax, "I don't know if you've noticed, but we're in the _Chamber of Secrets_. Talking can wait until we're out of here!"

"We are going to talk _now_!" Riddle's voice turned from calm to cold as he pocketed Harry's wand.

Harry was starting to realise something was very wrong now, so he instinctively positioned himself between Riddle and Ginny. "How did Ginny get like this?" he asked slowly.

"Well, that's an interesting question," said Riddle pleasantly as Andrew stood his ground on Harry's right and Jax moved to cover Harry's left. "And quite a long story. Put simply, little Ginny Weasley's like this because she opened her heart and spilled all her secrets to an invisible stranger."

"What are you talking about!" Jax snapped impatiently.

"The diary, _my_ diary," Riddle answered. "Little Ginny's been writing in it for months and months, telling me all her pitiful worries and woes." He chuckled mockingly. "How her brothers _tease_ her, how she had to come to school with second-hand robes and books, how nice that Jedi master had been so helpful with his mind tricks to save her parents some money. And how…" Riddle's eyes glinted maliciously, "oh how she didn't think famous, good, great Harry Potter would _ever_ like her..."

His eyes never left Harry's face, not once, it was almost like he was ignoring the other two in the room, both of which took the time he was distracted to try and look for signs of Mel or the Basilisk.

"It's very … _boring_ , having to listen to the silly little troubles of an eleven-year-old girl," he went on. "But I was patient. I wrote back, I was sympathetic, I was kind. Ginny simply _loved_ me. 'No one's ever understood me like you, Tom'" he mockingly put on a girlish voice. "'I'm so glad I've got this diary to confide in', 'It's like having a friend I can carry around in my pocket'. 'You're the only friend I have besides Mel'."

He started laughing, a high, cold laugh that didn't suit his kind, boyish features. "If I say so myself Harry, I've always been able to charm the people I needed to. So Ginny poured out her soul to me, and her soul happened to be exactly what I wanted."

"Why you cold, calculating, manipulative little..." Andrew started before Riddle silenced him.

"Silence! You filthy Mudblood! You dirty this place with your very existence!" he spat before continuing calmly. "As I was saying. I grew stronger on a diet of her deepest fears, her darkest secrets, I grew powerful, _far_ more powerful than little Miss Weasley. Powerful enough to start feeding Miss Weasley a few of _my_ secrets, to start pouring a little of _my_ soul back into _her_..."

"You!" Andrew shouted. "You made _Ginny_ open the Chamber of Secrets and set the Basilisk on people, I'd even bet you had her kill Hagrid's roosters too!"

Riddle grinned mockingly at the Jedi "Yes, but not _just_ her. Her dear friend Mel was quite useful too."

Andrew's face turned dark and Jax had to hold him in place with the Force.

"Of course, she didn't _know_ what she was doing at first. It was very amusing. I wish I could show you her next few diary entries … _far_ more interesting. 'Dear Tom'," he recited, enjoying the looks of horror even on Jax's face "'I think I'm losing my memory. The are rooster feathers all over my robes and I don't know how they got there.' 'Dear Tom, I can't remember what I did on the night of Halloween, but a cat was attacked and I've got blood all down my front'. '"Dear Tom, I think something is happening to Mel too ..." he went on and on, reciting Ginny's diary entries, she was getting more and more scared as time went on, but each entry was reminding Andrew of Mel and the fears she brought up with him, making her wonder yet again where she was.

"What did you do to Mel!" he finally shouted when he couldn't take any more of Riddle's monologue.

"Oh I didn't do anything to her, I made Ginny do something to her, I was controlling stupid little Ginny Weasley, and she was controlling trusting Melanie Jacobs." Riddle grinned sadistically at Andrew and turned back to Harry, who was clenching his fists so hard that his nails were biting into his palms.

"It took a very long time for stupid little Ginny to stop trusting her diary," Riddle continued. "But she finally became suspicious and tried to dispose of it, that's when _you_ ," he spared a glance at Andrew, "came in Harry, and your friend became suspicious, but I couldn't have been more delighted. Of all the people who could have picked it up, it was _you_ , the very person I was most anxious to meet."

"And why was that?" Harry growled, barely containing his rage at the boy who could so easily use someone as innocent as Ginny, and call her stupid for being so trusting.

"Well, you see, Ginny told me all about you Harry, your whole _fascinating_ history." Riddle's eyes glanced over the lighting bolt scar on Harry's forehead, "I knew I _had_ to find out more about you, talk to you, meet you if I could. So I decided to show you my famous capture of that great oaf, Hagrid, to gain your trust."

"Well that backfired then didn't it, that's what got us suspicious of you," Andrew snapped. "You framed him and it was plainly obvious, but clearly Dippet was so desperate to keep his school open that he ate it up!"

"True, only our Transfiguration teacher, Dumbledore seemed to think Hagrid was innocent. He persuaded Dippet to keep Hagrid and train him as gamekeeper. Dumbledore never did like me as much as the other teachers did." Riddle answered.

"Oh I wonder why!" Andrew shouted sarcastically.

"I bet he saw right through you," growled Harry through clenched teeth.

"Yes he did keep an annoyingly close eye on me after Hagrid was expelled," replied Riddle carelessly, "I knew it wouldn't be safe to open the Chamber again while I was in school, but I wasn't going to waste the five years I had spent looking for it."

"So you left a diary, possessed with yourself as you were then, so you could make someone later down the line carry on where you left off." Jax finished for him, "Impressive, brilliant even … but sick!"

"Salazar Slytherin's noble work must be finished," he told Jax coolly.

"Right, stop the Muggle-borns from studying magic, by stopping the Pure Bloods from studying too, very cleaver, you're not stopping the Muggle-borns, they're closing the school instead you great barnpot!" Andrew shouted.

"Exactly, you've failed Tom, nobody's died this time, not even the cat. In a few hours the Mandrake Draught will be ready and everyone who was Petrified will be alright again." Harry added with a mocking smile.

"Haven't I already told you Harry?" Riddle asked quietly. "Killing Mudbloods doesn't matter to me any more. For many months now, my new target has been … _you_."

They all stared at him.

"Imagine how angry I was when the next person writing in my diary was Ginny, not you. She saw you with the diary you see, she panicked. What if you found out how to work it, and I repeated all her secrets to you? What if, even worse, I told you who'd been strangling roosters? So the foolish little brat waited until your dormitory was deserted and stole it back!" Riddle's breathing was ragged, he paused for a moment to school his features and smooth his hair back, before continuing calmly.

"But I knew what I had to do. It was clear to me that you were on my trail, even if you didn't quite realise it yet. From everything that Ginny had told me about you, I knew that you would go to any lengths to solve the mystery, especially with the right incentive..."

Andrew narrowed his eyes. "You had Ginny deliberately target Hermione?"

"No, that was just pure luck, no I had Ginny and Melanie write their own little farewell and come down here to wait. Ginny struggled and cried and became quite boring, I congratulate the Jedi for Melanie's training, she's been quite well behaved. But Ginny's not got much life left, thanks to her pouring her soul into the diary, or should I say into me?" Riddle grinned maliciously again. "She's given me enough to allow me to finally leave the pages of the diary, I've been waiting for you to appear since we arrived here. I knew you'd come. I have many questions for you, Harry Potter."

"Like what?" Harry spat.

"Well," Riddle started, smiling pleasantly, "how is it that a baby, with no extraordinary magical talent, managed to defeat the greatest wizard of all time? How did _you_ escape with nothing but a scar, while Lord Voldemort's powers were destroyed?"

"Why do you care?" Jax butted in "Voldemort was after your time."

"Voldemort," Riddle replied softly, "is my past, present and future!" He pulled Harry's wand from his pocket and traced letters into the air, spelling his name. TOM MARVOLO RIDDLE. Then he swished the wand, pointing the tip at the letters and they rearranged themselves into "I AM LORD VOLDEMORT".

"Holy Sith!" Andrew exclaimed.

"You see?" Riddle whispered, easily heard due to the echoing expanse around them. "It was a name I was already using at Hogwarts, only amongst my closest friends of course. You think I was going to use my filthy Muggle father's name forever? I, in whose veins runs the blood of Salazar Slytherin himself, through my mother's side? No, Harry. I fashioned myself a new name, a name I knew wizards everywhere would one day fear to speak, when I had become the greatest sorcerer in the world!"

There was silence for a few moments, before Harry broke it.

"You're not," he said, his voice full of venom.

"Not what?" snapped Riddle.

"Not the greatest sorcerer in the world Dumb-ass," Andrew and Jax said together.

"You see Mouldyshorts," Andrew continued, causing Riddle to seethe with barely contained rage, "you're thinking of Albus Dumbledore."

"Everyone says so," continued Harry, "even when you were strong you didn't dare attack Hogwarts."

"Dumbledore saw through you when you were at school, and he still frightens you now, wherever you're hiding these days, just like the coward you are!" Jax finished.

Riddle's face went from furious to dark smugness. "Dumbledore has been driven from this castle by the mere _memory_ of me!" he hissed.

"He's not as gone as you might think," Harry retorted.

"He'll never be gone," Andrew added.

"There's still at least three people who are loyal to him as Headmaster," Jax finished by igniting his saber, Andrew did the same.

"And they're all standing against you." the Jedi declared.

Riddle was about to answer back when music came from all around them, Riddle whirled around to try and find the source as it grew louder, then out of the darkness flames erupted from nowhere and Fawkes the phoenix in all his red-golden glory, swooped down from above and dropped a ragged bundle he was carrying in his talons at Harry's feet, before landing heavily on his shoulder.

"What the hell is that?" Jax asked nobody in particular.

"It's a phoenix," Riddle answered coldly.

"Hello Fawkes," Andrew said as he stroked the birds feathers.

"And that, is the sorting hat," Riddle stated before he started laughing again, the echo making it sound like an army of Riddles were laughing. "So this is what Dumbledore sends his great defenders! A songbird and an old hat! Do you feel brave, Harry Potter? Do you feel safe now? With your guardians and your gifts from an old fool?"

The three of them waited for him to stop laughing, steeling themselves for what was sure to be a fight.

"To business Harry," he said, wiping his eyes before looking at Andrew and Jax, "we don't need you two for this discussion, but don't worry, I have someone here to entertain you. Oh Melanie?"

Just then someone dropped from the ceiling above the entrance to the chamber, and Mel stepped towards them, wearing something Andrew recognised.

"Hang on, how'd you get my 'spider-gear'?" he asked, confused, Mel was wearing gloves and boots identical to the ones he was wearing.

"You shouldn't have shown Melanie that charming duplication charm you created," Riddle answered.

"I see you hate Muggle-borns but you're not above using them," Jax spat as he and Andrew moved away from Harry.

"Ah but she isn't quite a Muggle-born," Riddle chuckled, "you see, one of the many things Ginny told me about, was how Melanie became a witch in the first place, a fact that the two girls had discussed in _great_ depth."

"I gave my blood to save her when she was run over last year," Andrew answered, sadly looking at the girl marching towards them with murder in her eyes.

"Yes, so weak, to care for someone that much," Riddle mocked.

"I feel so sorry for you," Andrew retorted as he spared Riddle a glance. "To have never cared for someone so much that you'd gladly give your life for them, it's sad."

"Perhaps, but now you're going to die at the hands of the very girl, you risked your life to save! Kill them!" Riddle ordered.

She drew her lightsabers from her sleeves, igniting an emerald blade in her left hand and an amethyst blade in her right.

"Jax," Andrew muttered quietly, "Mel's Jar'Kai technique is flawless but she does have one setback, she puts more power into her strikes than she should and therefore struggles to keep her stamina up, if we can hold her off long enough then we can ware her down and subdue her."

Jax nodded and Andrew continued as she got into her unorthodox stance of left hand forward grip and right hand reverse. "How good are you with Soresu?" Andrew pressed.

"I'm training to be a Sith Assassin, it's not exactly my speciality." Jax responded testily.

"I'll cover you as best as I can then, but you gave me your word."

"I know, I'll not kill her, but I won't promise not to maim her if we've got no other choice!"

Andrew didn't like that, but it was the best he could hope for. "Just remember Payne, unlike us, she's out to kill thanks to him!"

At that point, Mel charged in a flurry of green and purple as she leapt, spun and brought her blades crashing down right where Andrew and Jax were standing. Andrew had leapt to the right while Jax dodged to the left, leaving them on either side of her.

The three of them locked sabers, Mel glared at one opponent and then the other, her eyes had an almost glassy look to them. Finding a way out of the deadlock, Mel kick Jax hard in the stomach with her left foot, forcing him onto his back, then she brought both hands up toward Andrew, shoving him with such a powerful Force Push, that he sailed up towards the ceiling and became embedded in the wall slightly.

"Oww!" Andrew groaned. Thankfully he had used the Force to cushion the impact, but it still bloody hurt. Pulling himself out of the wall, he noticed that Riddle must have finished talking to Harry, as he had summoned the Basilisk, which Fawkes had done a marvellous job of blinding with his talons.

Down on the ground though, Jax was struggling to stay defensive, nearly getting skewered by Mel's forehand blade before it stopped in mid-strike. Andrew landed behind her, holding his hand out to grip hers with the Force.

Mel then used two fingers of her free hand to lift Jax and bodily hurl him into Andrew's chest, sending them both skidding along the polished, marble floor with a loud squeak.

"Oh this was a brilliant plan, what next Holmes?" Jax snapped angrily.

"I don't know, but it seems while she's being controlled, she's fighting better." Andrew racked his brain for another idea. "Alright, I'll hold her off, you try and get that snake to leave Harry alone."

They untangled themselves from each other and got up. Andrew dived right in and started using Soresu to the best of his abilities to hold Mel's strikes at bay. Meanwhile Jax focused and spoke in broken Parseltongue. "Enough, return to your resting place!" causing Riddle to laugh loudly.

"Parselmouth won't help you boy, it only obeys me," he told Jax in fluent Parseltongue, both of them having missed the fact that the Basilisk paused for a moment before continuing to chase Harry by his scent.

Jax growled in annoyance and ran towards Andrew and Mel, giving her a solid Force Push so Andrew could breathe for a moment, "It didn't work, it only obeys its master," he said.

"Fine, new plan, can you lock one of her sabers for me?" Andrew asked, just then they both leaned away from each other as Mel's emerald-bladed lightsaber went sailing between them, as it came back though, Jax moved to catch it.

"JAX, NO!" but it was too late, the safety feature in all Jedi lightsabers is a sort of anti-theft device, if anyone but the owner tries to use it, it shocks them.

"GAH!" Jax shouted in pain as ten thousand volts hit him for half a second, causing him to drop Mel's saber "FRIG THAT HURT!" he bellowed.

Andrew stared in shock. "What? You think I've never been eletro-WOAH!" the both jumped back as Mel cart-wheeled between them and grabbed her weapon, interrupting Jax mid-sentence.

The two of them dove in again, Andrew locking with Mel's purple saber and Jax with her green. While they both held her weapons, Andrew pressed the release catch on his lightsaber and his wand slid out of the hilt and into his waiting hand, he pointed the tip at Mel's chest and shouted "EXPELLIARMUS!" sending a jet of red energy into her and flying ten feet away, her weapons deactivated and Andrew and Jax caught one each.

When Mel landed she hit her head on one of the snake statues, hard, and was knocked unconscious. Andrew went to check on her, but Jax stopped him. "I'll make sure she's okay, you go help Potter."

Andrew looked and saw Harry going toe to toe with the Basilisk, a ruby encrusted sword in his hand. Andrew reignited his blade and hurled it at the Basilisk, nicking the scales on its belly on the first pass, and its back on the return trip. It roared both times but on the second strike, it fell towards Harry. He drove his sword up into the Basilisk's mouth and further up into its brain, dealing a fatal blow, but not before one of its fangs sunk deep into Harry's arm.

"HARRY!" Andrew bellowed and charged forward, catching his flying lightsaber as the snake pulled itself off the sword and writhed in pain before it died. Harry stumbled and began to fall when Andrew slid along the marble on his knees and caught his friend, pulling the Basilisk fang from the crook of Harry's elbow.

"You're dead, Harry Potter," Riddle scoffed as Fawkes landed beside the two Gryffindors.

"You were brilliant Fawkes," Harry told the bird, Andrew felt tears welling up in his eyes as he felt Harry's life starting to ebb.

Fawkes dipped his head towards Harry's wounded arm, and started to cry, as soon as his tears touched the gaping, bleeding hole, it started to close.

"And so ends the 'Great Harry Potter'," Riddle gloated, having not yet noticed the wound healing. "I'm going to stand here and watch you die, don't worry Harry, you'll be with your Mudblood mother soon, and then Lord Voldemort will return. Very. Much. Alive!"

Ignoring him, Andrew stroked Fawkes' back "Good boy Fawkes," he said, causing Riddle to realise what was happening.

"Phoenix tears … healing properties … I forgot," he muttered.

Then Fawkes flew off and came back, dropping Riddle's diary in Harry's lap. Riddle froze as he saw the Basilisk fang in Andrew's hand, the Jedi passed it to Harry and then Riddle screamed as Harry stabbed the book, piercing the fang right through from cover to cover.

Ink oozed from the book like blood, flooding everywhere, and Riddle seemed to explode, dropping Harry's wand. Ginny awoke with a gasp, she looked around, saw the dead Basilisk, Harry in his blood-soaked robes, the sword in his right hand and the sizzling diary in the other.

As soon as she saw the diary she burst into tears, Harry dropped the sword and the book and dropped to his knees to comfort her, while Andrew left them and went to check on Mel, rubbing the back of his sore head and stumbling a little.

When he got there, Jax nodded towards Harry and Ginny. "They okay?" he asked.

"I'll be amazed if Ginny _doesn't_ have a few nightmares about this, but physically I think she'll be fine," Andrew answered as Mel came to, she groaned and opened her eyes, which weren't glassy any more.

"Ow, my head!" she whined as Jax helped her sit up.

"I'm going to be expelled!" Ginny cried as she and Harry slowly made their way down the Chamber towards the three of them and the exit.

"I doubt it Ginny," said Jax, comfortingly, surprising everyone else. "Just someone who knows, there's a chasm of difference between _being_ evil, and _doing_ evil, and you've got me to testify that."

Without another word, he turned and walked away.

They got back to Ron, who had made a hole just big enough for Ginny to pass through and while he was busy hugging his sister, Andrew, Mel and Jax moved the rest of the rocks and then, after telling Ron they would explain later, Fawkes carried Harry, Ron, Ginny, Lockhart, Andrew, Mel and Jax all the way back up to Myrtle's bathroom.

"Amazing! Amazing! This is just like magic!" cried Lockhart, whom Ron had explained, had no clue who he was, who anyone else was, or plainly, that he was a wizard.

Once they left Myrtle's bathroom, Fawkes was leading the way, right to McGonagall's office. Harry being at the front of the group, knocked on the door and pushed it open.

All was silent as the six children and one adult stood in the doorway, the then two women inside the office screamed.

"GINNY!"

"MELANIE!"

It was Mrs Weasley and Master Bailo, they charged forward, along with Mr Weasley, and pulled the girls into crushing hugs, both of them breaking down into tears.

Andrew took stock of the room, Mrs Weasley had been sitting by the fire and crying, Master Bailo was looking solemnly out the window before she turned to the sound of someone opening the door and then dived over McGonagall's desk to reach her Padawan.

Professor McGonagall was behind her desk, clutching her chest, having been given a fright at the screams, next to her was Master Cooper and Professor Dumbledore was now standing, with Fawkes on his shoulder, beside the mantelpiece.

The next thing he knew, he, Harry, Ron and Jax (reluctantly) had been pulled into hugs by Mrs Weasley as she thanked each and every one of them for rescuing her daughter.

With Mrs Weasley asking how they managed it, McGonagall agreed that they would all like to know, so Harry placed on her desk, the Sorting Hat, the sword of Godric Gryffindor, the Basilisk's fang and what was left of Riddle's diary.

Between him, Andrew, and Jax they explained everything. Harry hearing a disembodied voice in the walls, how Hermione figured out it was a Basilisk in the pipes, Jax confessed that he too was a Parselmouth and didn't realise it until after the incident at the Duelling Club.

Andrew took over and explained how they had followed the spiders into the forest, met Aragog and how he had told them of a girl dying fifty years ago in a bathroom, as well as how Harry had guessed it was Myrtle and that the entrance to the Chamber might have been in her bathroom.

They paused then and McGonagall spoke up. "Very well, so you found where the entrance was, breaking about a hundred school rules to pieces along the way I might add. But how on _earth_ did all of you get out alive?"

Jax then told them how he'd met up with Andrew outside Myrtle's bathroom, and how Harry and Ron had caught Lockhart trying to run away. He told them about finding the entrance, sliding at least three miles down the pipe and how Lockhart caused a cave-in by trying to wipe their memories, leaving himself, Andrew and Harry separated from Ron.

Harry then explained Fawkes' timely arrival, how he blinded the Basilisk with his talons, because Andrew and Jax were being kept busy by Mel who was bewitched somehow.

"Her eyes were … glassy," Andrew added, causing Dumbledore to nod knowingly.

Harry then mentioned how the sword appeared inside the Sorting Hat that Fawkes had brought him, but then the three of them faltered, so far they had avoided all mention of Riddle, his diary or the involvement of Mel and Ginny.

But thankfully Dumbledore spoke up and saved them. "What interests _me_ most," he said gently, "is how Lord Voldemort managed to enchant Ginny and Melanie, when my sources tell me he is currently in hiding in the forests of Albania."

As Mr Weasley stammered over what Dumbledore just said, Harry turned and picked up Riddle's diary. "It was this diary," he explained, passing it to Dumbledore, "Riddle wrote it when he was sixteen."

"Of course," said Dumbledore with a smile "Few people know that Lord Voldemort was once called Tom Riddle." Dumbledore then went on to explain that after leaving Hogwarts he travelled far and wide, underwent multiple magical transformations and by the time he resurfaced as Lord Voldemort, he was completely unrecognisable.

"But what's our Ginny got to do with … _him_?" Mrs Weasley asked, at which point Ginny started crying and explaining how she'd been writing to Tom and how he had possessed her and made her open the Chamber and attack the students. As soon as she added that he made her take control of Mel too, Mel burst into tears, crying into her Master's robes.

"I r-remember," she cried in anguish, "I used the D-d-dark side. I Force choked one of the roosters!"

Dela tried to calm her Padawan but Mel burst out through her tears. "I'm not fit to be a Jedi!"

"Calm yourself young one, you did nothing wrong of your own free will," Jarod explained soothingly. "We will talk more on this later."

Mel nodded but continued to sob on her Master's shoulder while Dela gently rubbed her back.

Meanwhile Mr Weasley was exasperated at his daughter, reminding her never to trust anything that can think for itself if she couldn't see where it keeps its brain.

"Remind me _never_ to introduce you to a computer," Andrew blurted out, causing the two crying girls to splutter and laugh through their tears. Mr Weasley smiled his thanks to Andrew and continued.

"Why didn't you show the diary to me or your mother? A suspicious object like that, it was _clearly_ full of Dark Magic!"

"I didn't know," sniffled Ginny, the tears slowly stopping, "I found it inside one of the books Mum got me." she sniffled again "I thought someone had just left it in there and forgotten about it ..."

Professor Dumbledore asked Mr and Mrs Weasley and Master Bailo to take Mel and Ginny to the hospital wing, insisting that there would be no punishment, and assuring them that older and wiser wizards had been hoodwinked by Voldemort.

"Yeah, remember Quirrel?" Andrew said as he nudged Harry with his elbow, Harry sighed and nodded.

"He had Voldemort sticking out the back of his head for who knows how long." Harry answered, before adding. "Remember what you said when you and Voldemort first came face to face?"

Andrew laughed and pulled his lightsaber from his belt. "'Lord Voldemort I presume? I'd say it was an honour," he paused to ignite his weapon, "if I had _any_ respect for you."

Jarod and Dela both applauded the dramatics and Jax looked amazed. "You said that to him last year, you called him 'Moldeshorts' mere hours ago … you trying to earn a reputation or something?" he asked, when Ron gave him a perplexed look he added. "As the most insulting person he knows." causing Ron to nod in understanding.

Dumbledore smiled at them for helping him make his point, he strode over to the door and opened it. "Bed rest, and a steaming mug of hot chocolate, I find that always cheers me up."

Patting Ginny on the head gently he added, "You'll find that Madam Pomfrey is still awake, administering Mandrake Juice to her patients, I've no doubt that the Basilisks victims will be waking up soon."

"So Hermione's alright?" Ron asked, speaking for the first time since they walked in.

Dumbledore assured him that there was no lasting harm done and asked McGonagall to alert the kitchens that they were to have a celebratory feast.

"Now I seem to recall," Dumbledore said as he turned to the four boys before him, "telling Mr Potter and Mr Weasley at the start of the year to pass a message on to Mr Payne."

Harry and Ron both slapped their foreheads as Andrew asked what message.

"That if any of you three broke any more school rules, I would have to expel you." Ron's mouth dropped open in horror. "But that merely proves that even the best of us have to sometimes eat our words."

"The four of you shall receive Special Awards for Services to the School and, let me see, two hundred points apiece for your houses.

After reiterating that Lockhart had lost his memory, Dumbledore asked Andrew, Ron and Jax to take him up to the hospital wing too, Jax politely asked if he could return to his common room as he really needed a shower and had had enough of the cheerful emotions bounding around for one night.

So it was just Andrew and Ron taking Lockhart, after Andrew thanked Jax for his help.

"Don't mention it … _ever_ ," Jax said gruffly as he walked away.

Later, at the feast, Harry told Ron, Hermione, Andrew and Mel about how Lucius Malfoy came barging in with his House Elf, Dobby. How Dumbledore made it clear that he knew Lucius had been responsible for Ginny getting Riddle's diary and that the School Governors had begged Dumbledore to come back as soon as they heard of Mel and Ginny being kidnapped, saying Malfoy had threatened to curse their families if they didn't sign to kick him out.

Then, much to the amusement of the others, Harry told them about how he had tricked Malfoy into giving Dobby one of Harry's socks, setting him free.

Unbeknownst to the Gryffindors, Draco was listening in and quietly told Jax he was glad that Dobby was free and how he hated seeing his father abuse the poor creature.

"Why didn't you just give him clothes then?" Jax asked.

"Because, Father would have known it was me," Draco answered, the look in his eye telling everything else.

"So then I said to Dobby, 'I just have one favour to ask.' he said anything, and I said ' _never_ try to save my life again'." Harry finished, causing his friends to burst out laughing.

"Oh that's more priceless than Dobby attacking Malfoy's Dad!" roared Ron.

It was hard to tell what the best part of the feast was, the fact that it was a celebration or all the victims being revived, Dumbledore announcing that the exams had been cancelled, Hagrid coming in at three o'clock in the morning … or Andrew leaping onto the teacher's table and announcing that this was the best sleepless night he'd ever had and saying they should do this again next week, causing Fred and George Weasley to simultaneously hurl a well aimed cream pie at either side of his face.

But all in all, it was the best night many of the students had ever experienced.

The rest of the term passed in something of a haze, Andrew finished building his car and programming the watch mode into it so he could take it home and finish it over the summer, Lucius Malfoy was sacked from the board of School Governors, causing Draco to have to pretend he was furious about it, Dumbledore had cancelled all remaining Defence Against the Dark Arts classes, and Mel and Ginny were starting to cheer up.

Ginny cheered up a _lot_ more, when Dumbledore came to find her, sitting by the lake with Harry, Ron, Hermione, Andrew and Mel, to tell her that due to all of her homework that year being handed in with answers worthy of a second-year student, he was going to spend the first couple of weeks tutoring her in second-year spells she would have otherwise missed, so that starting in September, she would be a third-year.

A week after Ginny's amazing news, it was time to go home for summer. After packing his trunk, Andrew went to the Room of Requirement to manually transform his new car into watch mode, then he ran down to the Entrance Hall in time to see his friends lined up for the next carriage to the train station.

"You coming?" Mel asked him.

"If this doesn't work, then yes," Andrew answered as he walked around to the other side of the carriage, muttering to himself as he pressed the buttons on his watch in the right order.

Suddenly it started making loud mechanical noises as it warped and transformed itself around him, forcing him into a seated position. To be fair, it was the ugliest car anyone had ever seen, there was only one seat in a chassis, the engine was on full display, as was the petrol tank. It had no doors or body work and there was wiring all around the dashboard.

"What?" he demanded as his friends looked at the car in mild disgust. "She's not finished yet!"

But he laughed in maniacal triumph as the engine started on its own. "BUT SHE WORKS!" he shouted and cackled as he put his foot down and sped out the main gates.

Mel shook her head as the others giggled, "Always on the move," she sighed.

"How long has it been since he slept?" Ginny asked with a giggle.

Harry and Ron looked at each other, trying to work it out "About seven weeks I think?" Ron said, causing Mel to shoot bolt upright.

"AND WE LET HIM DRIVE?" she shrieked as they all heard a horn blaring in the distance, making them fear that he'd fallen asleep at the wheel and crashed, the carriage pulled to a stop and Mel bolted out the door, thankfully it seemed Andrew hadn't crashed, just pulled to a stop and passed out on the steering wheel.

 **And now for a public service announcement: NEVER DRIVE WHILE SLEEPY! It's both hazardous to** _ **your**_ **health, any passengers you're carrying and** _ **other**_ **road users.**


	9. Summer Again

Chapter 9 – Summer again

After getting Andrew out of the car, Mel called Master Cooper to tell him what had happened and he asked her if she could get him on the train. Harry and Ron took care of that, and Jarod said he'd bring Zan Axfow with him to pick them up from Kings Cross.

With that taken care of, Mel leaned through the window and tried to figure out how to change the car back to watch mode, after five minutes of trying she finally figured it out and stepped onto the train and into the compartment her friends were in.

Comparatively, the train ride was rather uneventful, until Harry remembered something and asked Ginny about it.

"What did you see Percy doing, that he didn't want you telling anyone about?"

"Oh, that. Percy's got a _girlfriend_!" she announced, causing Fred to drop a stack of books on Georges head.

" _What_?" Fred asked.

"Wha-OW!" was what came out of George's mouth.

"The Revenclaw Prefect who got ... attacked with Hermione," Ginny clarified, trying not to look ashamed as she soldiered on, "I walked in on them kissing in an empty classroom one day."

"You won't tease him will you?" She pleaded, mostly to Fred and George.

"Wouldn't dream of it," said Fred as he drew a moustache on Andrew's sleeping face.

"Definitely not," added George as he wrapped the top of Andrew's head in bandages that he had dyed red, Lee Jordan adding little drops of fake blood down the side of his face.

"Please tell him he crashed the car when he wakes up?" Lee begged Mel who looked murderously at them.

That look convinced them to clean Andrew up and then they settled down. Just before they pulled into the station, Harry took out some parchment and wrote the same number down three times, he gave one to Hermione, one to Ron and one to Mel.

"What's this?" Ron asked.

"It's called a phone number," Harry answered "I showed your Dad how to use a telephone last summer, he'll know. Call me at the Dursley's, I can't stand another two months with just Dudley to talk to."

Mel gave her copy back. "What's the point of speaking to your uncle when Andrew and I can just call you on your Holo-com?" she asked. Harry agreed that that made more sense, but Mel did at least take Harry's quill and write down the temple's switchboard number on the back of Ron's and Hermione's parchment.

"I promise I'll send Snowfire off with letters as soon as Andrew's awake." She added.

Just then the train pulled into the station and straight away, Masters Cooper and Axfow leapt aboard and carried Andrew off, Dela met her Padawan off the train and took Andrew's belongings.

They bid farewell to Mel's friends and took a gentle stroll back to the temple, talking more about how Mel would continue her training as a Jedi, despite how she felt she had failed her Master.

"Magic involves a few things even the High Council is unaware of, for that reason there are some things that I will never be able to prepare you for," Dela explained to her apprentice, placing a hand on her shoulder. "Do _not_ blame yourself child, be mindful and thankful that strangling roosters is the worst thing you did."

"Is it though Master? I stole from my best friend, I tried to kill him!" Mel anguished.

"But you _didn't_ succeed, and that's the point to focus on," Dela pressed as they climbed the steps. "When did you last meditate?"

"I've not been able to lately, I just can't focus without getting visions of what I did while Ginny was forced to control me," Mel mumbled miserably.

"Hmm, perhaps we should meditate together after dinner tonight, and then we'll go out," Dela let out a rare giggle, "not as Master and Padawan, but just a couple of girls for a night out!"

Mel couldn't help but smile and nod.

"Excuse me?" a lady asked behind them, Mel recognised the voice and turned to find Professor Sinistra there. "Oh, hello Melanie, I take it I _am_ in the right place."

"Aurora, how are you?" Dela asked, shaking her hand.

"I'm fine, Dela, how are you? Could you tell me where I can find Jarod?" Aurora answered.

"I'm alright, I'm amazed you got here so fast, were you on the train too?" Dela asked.

"No, I used the Floo network, I've just walked here from Diagon Alley, I say that, I've really been wondering around lost for the last 3 hours!" Aurora complained, causing the other two women to giggle.

"Melanie why don't you take yours and Andrew's, belongings to your rooms and unpack, I'll take Aurora to the Halls of Healing," Mel nodded to her Master and took Andrew's trunk as Professor Sinistra became worried. The last thing Mel heard was Master Bailo explaining that Jarod was watching over Andrew there.

A week later, Andrew awoke, went through the usual routine of having his vitals checked and catching up on anything new, and then he was discharged.

After having a hearty breakfast and getting the watch back from Mel, Andrew all but locked himself away in the garage. First he built a new shuttle car to replace the one he wrecked and then he tried to continue work on his own car.

First he focused on his designs for a system that would allow the car more freedom from fossil fuels, it took him two days of non-stop work to build all the turbines he needed. Then he spent another two days attaching them to solar panels which served as the main body of the car.

From there he then coated the solar panels with an almost transparent layer of carbon fibre and while he was working on the hardware for the computer systems, he passed out on his workbench.

The next morning, it had been six days and Andrew had only ever been seen for meals and his bed hadn't been slept in. Jarod decided he needed to find out what Andrew was up to. He made his way into the garage and found Andrew asleep on a workbench, his right cheek laying in a small pool of grease.

Jarod smiled fondly, but exasperatedly, at his Padawan before waking him up. "Oh, good morning Master. What time is it?"

"About eight in the morning, whatever are you working on that's got you neglecting everything else?" Jarod asked.

Andrew sighed "It's this car," he explained, leaving Jarod a little confused.

"I thought you'd already built a fully functioning replacement, in record time too," Jarod followed Andrew into the next room where his project sat, gleaming red and quite beautiful. "This isn't one of our shuttle cars." Jarod said, stating the obvious.

Andrew grinned proudly. "I thought it would make life a little simpler to have one of my own," he answered. "Here, let me talk you through it."

He pulled up a holographic schematic of the car, pointing out that the chassis and seating arrangements, while in 'normal' mode at least, were identical to the Order's shuttle cars.

"After that the similarities stop, because you see, every millimetre of every panel on the body work is a hybrid of a miniaturised wind turbine and a solar panel, covered by the body work you can see." he explained pointing along the edge of a door panel. "See the holes along here?"

"Um, no I don't," Jarod answered, then Andrew handed him a magnifying glass and held another up to boost the magnification. Suddenly Jarod could see about eighteen small black holes going up the edge "Ah yes, I see them now."

"During the day, this panel," Andrew knocked on it, "gets brighter, due to the sun being up, even on a rainy day it's brighter than night-time, which allows the solar panels under here to generate power for the engine's battery, which obviously powers everything else."

"Obviously," Jarod agreed.

" _Then_ while you're driving along, air is taken in, spinning the _billions_ of fans, all hooked up to a turbine which makes more power for the engine, this baby is capable of producing six hundred horse-power, without needing fuel!" Andrew was beaming at it work.

"Most impressive, what else can you tell me," Jarod always enjoyed watching Andrew enjoy his work.

"Well, this is 'normal' mode, and I've managed to program a 'pod' mode, which is pretty much a motorcycle, 'watch' mode so I can take it indoors, and both shuttle and fighter modes."

"I'm sensing this is where the problem sets in," Jarod stated.

Andrew sighed again, "Yes, I can't figure out how to get the artificial intelligence to work. This baby has so many more functions than the shuttle car fleet that their AI just won't cut it. And until I can make one that works, all the transformations have to be done manually and with the _right_ button codes."

"Well, I think you should take a break, after-all, I believe it's your friend, Harry's, birthday in a couple of weeks, why don't you get cleaned up, put some fresh clothes on and we'll head out and get him something." Jarod said coaxingly.

Andrew started to leave, then hesitated as he looked over his shoulder at the car. "Don't worry, she's not going anywhere. By the way, does she have a name yet?"

Andrew smiled at that and nodded over to the terminal he was using, he left his Master to read it while he ran off for a shower.

"Hmm, interesting name." Jarod thought aloud "Knight Automated Tactical Technology."

Andrew went straight to his room to use the shower there, deciding that a break from working on the car would do him good. After getting himself cleaned up and into some fresh clothes, he meditated until lunch, and then spent the afternoon sparring with Mel and teaching saber technique to a few Younglings.

The next day was a Friday and Jarod took Andrew out shopping for something for Harry's birthday, Mel decided to join them and sadly, they didn't have a great deal of luck finding anything that seemed to fit.

"I have an idea," Mel said after three days of going out and finding nothing.

"I'm listening," Andrew said, looking through DVDs, movies were a pointless venture for getting Harry a gift since he wasn't allowed to use any of the Dursley's appliances. He was hoping that the titles would give him an idea.

"Why don't we make him something?" Mel asked, reading the title 'Do It Yourself', on a film about building sheds.

"Hmm," Andrew said thoughtfully, "that's not a bad idea, I noticed that most of his clothes are oversized for him, and last year I built him a lightsaber. Maybe he could use a new belt with a slot for attaching his weapon."

"Exactly!" Mel chimed.

"Good thinking, Melanie!" Jarod praised.

"To the Haberdashery!" Andrew yelled, making a beeline for the exit.

"Hold on!" Mel called, picking something up.

"What do you have there?" Dela asked.

"Something for Andrew and his band." Mel said, holding out a book.

"Top of the Pops?" he asked, confused.

"I've heard you play, you guys need some new material!" she joked.

Andrew didn't find that too amusing, less so when Jarod paid for the book, but given that they'd only performed TV theme tunes, Mel somewhat had a point.

After getting what they needed from the haberdashery, they returned to the Temple and Andrew was given the rest of the day off to attend a band practise.

After spending the afternoon and the night going through the book, the band had learned a few things. Jak was quite skilled at growling and death metal and Ratchet was a fair rapper.

The next day they performed at a birthday party for one of the youngest Padawan Learners. Their biggest hit was Crash and Burn by Busted, the use of the word 'bitch' notwithstanding.

"You're improving," Mel said between songs.

"Thanks, and thanks for getting that book, think we'll ever get to play a big stage?" Andrew asked while the band packed up.

"Time will tell, just keep working at it." Mel answered.

 **End of Part 2**

 **Sorry for the shortest chapter ever, but I can't seem to make it any longer, trust me, I've tried.**


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